S1 Ep12 Dance Workshop (What is choreography?)
In this session, we shift focus from how we dance to what is being danced. After exploring multiple approaches to improvisation and movement, the workshop turns toward choreography, not as fixed steps to be copied, but as the set of conditions, influences, and structures that inform movement.
The episode begins by questioning a common understanding of choreography as something taught and reproduced. Instead, choreography is approached as that which informs dancing: histories, contexts, people, objects, spaces, moods, language, and attention. Improvisation is examined not as complete freedom, but as something already shaped by these influences. This opens a blurred space where choreographed and improvised practices overlap rather than oppose one another.
From here, the session introduces the idea of choreography as an art form in itself, sometimes referred to as expanded choreography. Rather than asking only how steps are made, the workshop asks what causes dance to take the form it does, and whether those causes might themselves be considered choreographic material. Furniture, clothing, architecture, habits, music, instructions, and social situations are all considered as potential choreographers.
The practical exploration invites participants to dance while paying attention to what is structuring their movement. This includes revisiting earlier exercises, such as trying not to dance and noticing when dance emerges, or deliberately dancing and asking what makes it feel like dance. Participants are encouraged to experiment with music and silence, different spaces, and varying contexts, while observing what informs their movement choices.
The second part of the session focuses on collecting choreographic influences. Participants are invited to gather what choreographs them: movements they’ve learned, music they return to, objects, environments, images, words, or observed behaviours. Reflection is approached through multiple methods including journaling, drawing, recording, watching, copying, and revisiting material, emphasising rehearsal, repetition, and noticing.
The workshop concludes with a reflective practice drawn from Zoë Poluch’s work: a simple instruction to “just dance.” Without analysing or structuring, participants are invited to let go and allow dancing itself to become the reflection on choreography and the questions raised throughout the session.
