Footnotes: Six Choreographers Inscribe the Page (Critical Voices in Art, Theory and Culture)

The writings of six choreographers are assembled in this book and the leap they have taken to go from the medium of choreography into written text constitutes a form of translation. Some of the texts investigate the possibilities of written language as invention, others use it as a means to illustrate specific tenets or describe choreographic projects. All yield insight into the process of coaxing language from the body. IN THE TASK OF THE TRANSLATOR, Walter Benjamin stated: "Languages are not strangers to one another, but are, a priori and apart from all historical relationships, interrelated in what they want to express....The task ... consists in finding that intended effect ... upon the language into which he is translating which produces in it the echo of the original." This collection of essays aims to present a translation from the medium of chroeography to written text. They investigate the possibilities of the written language as invention, and use text as a means to illustrate specific tenets or describe choreographic projects. This book, part of the Critical Voices in Art, Theory and Culture series, is a collection of essays by six choreographers, with commentaries by poet Elena Alexander "This is a book ... about how and what six individuals, whose chosen art form is dance-making, think about that activity in a broader and deeper sense"--Foreword