Leslie Elkins

Body-presence: Lived Experience of Choreography and Performance Leslie Elkins

This work is an investigation into the lived experiences of dance artists as they choreograph and perform through experimental collaborations. The initial research project included an ongoing experiment between Deborah Hay and Grace Mi-He Lee about the transmission of choreography. Continuing to question how choreography and performance are meaningful to dancers and further investigating how to transpose lived experiences of dance making and performing into text, the author initiated another research experiment with artists Grace Mi-He Lee and Tania Isaac. Collaborating on two duets concurrently, one with each artist, and using the same thematic material, the author primarily used phenomenological and hermeneutic modes to create written stories of the dances that weave close descriptions of movement with interpretations of the artists? experiences along with other topics including improvisation, somatics, collaborative processes, and autobiography. Themes of connection and friendship emerged from the stories of these duets, as evidenced in the choreography and language used by the participants when talking and writing about their experiences of making and performing the duets.