Decentring dancing texts : the challenge of interpreting dances

Decentring is a term used both in dance and in critical theory. Merce Cunningham famously decentred the dance, with several activities taking place at once. The absence of a directed structure for the spectator invited instead a multiplicity of co-existing perspectives. The lack of a centre is also typical of writings in new theories of post-structuralism. Decentring Dancing Texts analyses recent dance practices in the theatre, in club culture and on film, addressing their interdisciplinary relationship with music, painting and plays through new theoretical positions. Covering works by Lea Anderson, Jerome Bel, Jonathan Burrows, Mats Ek, Akram Khan, Shobana Jeyasingh, Ian Spink and LoIc Touze, the book also contains an original essay on New York youngsters dancing in the film Mad Hot Ballroom. The contributors use insights from web-based theories of hypertextuality to analyse the making of new television dance and to construct the spectator as co-creator of meaning in the work, with the original maker.