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The updated and revised edition of
A Choreographer's Handbook invites readers to investigate how and why to make a dance performance. Burrows' open and honest prose gives the reader access to a range of principles, exercises, meditations and ideas on choreography that allow artists and dance-makers to find their own aesthetic process.
List of contents
Preface, 2nd edition
Dancing / Principles
Material
Habits
Repetition
Repetition
Repetition
Improvisation / Cut and paste / Choreography
Form
Exploration / Risk
Breaking the rules
Subject / Inspiration / Stealing / Familiar movement / Choreography / Referencing other sources
Research / How and what? / Dramaturgy / Theory / Curiosity
Contract / Performance space
Self-expression
Abstract dance
Interview / Unfinished business / Questions / Principles
Financial limitations / Studios / Funding applications
Collaboration / Audience
Preparation / Meetings / Rehearsal schedule / Heaviness
Originality / Ecology / Paradox
Technique / Parrot on your shoulder / Authenticity /
Dancing / Style / Fiddling
Virtuosity
Specificity
Daily practice
Hoarding / Beginnings
Endings
Keeping it going / Pacing
Change / Dub reggae / Simple material / Desperation
Predictable and unpredictable / Expectation
Stillness and silence
Minimal and maximal
Solos, duos, trios, quartets
Many bodies / States
Parallel Voices
Performance / Principles
Distracting the self / Paradox / Choreography / Performance / Electric guitars
Does it work? / Showings / Mentoring
Narrative / Ballet / Continuity
Continuity / Material / Make six things / Choreography / Flow
Relation
Relation / Time / Rhythm
Time
Counterpoint
Unison
Scores / Studios / Translation / Sequencing / Improvisation
Chance / Empty hands / Gamut of movements / Limitations / Laborious
work / Philosophy
Audience / Facing the front / Facing each other / Confrontation / Humour / Failure
Place or space?
Audience
Hierarchies / Dancer or choreographer? / In it or out of it? / Who owns what?
The marketplace / Earning a living / Administrating the work / Commercial work / Commissions / Academia
Music / Collaboration / Silence
Text
Lighting / Technicians / Collaboration / Costumes / Set
design / Nudity
Filming / History / Collaboration / Mirrors / Human-scale
Titles
How can I simplify all of this?
Forget all this
About the author
Jonathan Burrows is a choreographer, teacher and writer, whose work has been invited widely internationally. He is best known for an ongoing body of work with the composer Matteo Fargion, with whom he has collaborated for over 30 years. He is the author of '
A Choreographer's Handbook' (Routledge 2010) and '
Writing Dance' (2022) and is currently Associate Professor at the Centre for Dance Research, Coventry University, UK.
Summary
The updated and revised edition of A Choreographer’s Handbook invites readers to investigate how and why to make a dance performance. Burrows’ open and honest prose gives the reader access to a range of principles, exercises, meditations and ideas on choreography that allow artists and dance-makers to find their own aesthetic process.
