A Choreographer's Handbook / Edition 1

by Jonathan Burrows

Overview

On choreography: "Choreography is a negotiation with the patterns your body is thinking"

On rules: "Try breaking the rules on a need to break the rules basis"

A Choreographer's Handbook invites the reader to investigate how and why to make a dance performance. In an inspiring and unusually empowering sequence of stories, ideas and paradoxes, internationally renowned dancer, choreographer and teacher Jonathan Burrows explains how it's possible to navigate a course through this complex process.

It is a stunning reflection on a personal practice and professional journey, and draws upon five years' of workshop discussions, led by Burrows.

Burrows' open and honest prose gives the reader access to a range of exercises, meditations, principles and ideas on choreography that allow artists and dance-makers to find their own aesthetic process.

It is a book for anyone interested in making performance, at whatever level and in whichever style.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780415555302
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	05/14/2010
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	240
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 7.70(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Jonathan Burrows is a choreographer whose main focus is an ongoing body of pieces with the composer Matteo Fargion, with whom he continues to perform around the world. The two men are co-produced by BIT Teatergarasjen Bergen, PACT Zollverein Essen and Sadler's Wells Theatre London. Burrows is currently a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Dance Research, Coventry University. His 'A Choreographer's Handbook' has sold over 15,000 copies since its publication in 2010.

Table of Contents

Preface Dancing / Principles Material Habits Repetition Repetition Repetition Improvisation / Cut and paste / Choreography Form Exploration / Risk Subject / Inspiration / Stealing / Familiar movement / Referencing other sources/ Choreography / Self-expression Contract / Performance space / Language / Choreography Breaking The Rules Research / How and what? / Dramaturgy / Theory / Curiosity Interview / Unfinished business / Questions / Principles Financial limitations / Studios / Funding Applications Preparation / Rehearsal schedule / Heaviness Collaboration / Audience Originality / Paradox Technique / Parrot on your shoulder / Authenticity / Daily practice / Dancing / Style / Fiddling Virtuosity Hoarding / Beginnings Endings Keeping it going / Pacing Dub reggae / Rate of change / Simple material / Desperation Stillness and silence / Fear of being boring Minimal and maximal Does it work? / Showings / Mentoring Other bodies / States Distracting the self / Paradox / Choreography / Performance / Electric guitars Predictable and unpredictable / Expectation Narrative / Ballet / Continuity Continuity / Sectional pieces / Material / Make six things / Choreography / Flow / Relation Relation / Solos, duos, trios, quartets / Ideas Relation / Time / Rhythm Time Abstract dance Counterpoint / Formal elements / Difference Scores / Studios / Improvisation Chance / Empty hands / Gamut of movements / Limitations / Laborious work Place or space? Audience / Facing the front / Confrontation / Humour / Failure Audience Performance / Principles The marketplace / Earning a living / Administrating the work / Commissions Music / Collaboration / Silence Text Lighting / Technicians / Collaboration / Costumes / Shoes or no shoes? / Set design / Nudity Titles Filming / History / Collaboration / Mirrors / Human-scale Hierarchies / Who owns what? / Dancer or choreographer? / In it or out of it? How can I simplify all of this? Forget all this Bibliography Thanks Biography of the author Index

Editorial Reviews

'It proposes clear, but simultaneously cryptic advices applicable to a broad church of performance and dance making-dilemas. Well worth ordering' - Tim Etchells, Artistic Director of Forced Entertainment

'The book covers thematic topics such as 'Collaboration', 'Material' and 'Mentoring' in playful ways, making bold statements but also cheekily suggesting that the opposite may also be true. It is a thought-provoking read, but also a useful manual on approaching performance for teachers, students and practitioners, that attempts to go beneath the layers of performing and making performance works.' - Emma Meehan, Dance Notes

'it proposes clear, but simultaneously cryptic advices applicable to a broad church of performance and dance making-dilemas. Well worth ordering' - Tim Etchells, Artistic Director of Forced Entertainment

'it is a workshop in the form of a book, which aims to help choreographers and dancers in articulating and fine-tuning their own ways of working' - Jeroen Peeters, CORPUS

From the Publisher