Improvised Dance: (In)Corporeal Knowledges

This book elucidates the technical aspects of improvised dance performance and reframes the notion of labour in the practice from one that is either based on compositionally formal logic or a mysterious impulse, to one that addresses the (in)corporeal dimensions of practice.

Mobilising the languages and conceptual frameworks of theories of affect, embodied cognition, somatics, and dance, this book illustrates the work of specialist improvisers who occupy divergent positions within the complex field of improvised dance. It offers an alternative narrative of the history and current practice of Western improvised dance centred on the epistemology of its (in)corporeal knowledges, which are elusive yet vital to the refinement of expertise.

Written for both a disciplinary-specific and interdisciplinary audience, this book will interest dance scholars, students, and practising artists.

Nalina Wait is a dance artist and pracademic currently lecturing at the Australian College of Physical Education. She is of Irish descent and lives on Gadigal Country in Eora, Sydney. Her research is on the practice and performance of dance improvisation, somatics, and the shared appreciation and cultivation of somatic intelligence.