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Democracy's Body, Neoliberalism's Body: The Ambivalent Search for Egalitarianism Within the Contemporary Post/Modern Dance Tradition

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 April 2019

Jose L. Reynoso
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Abstract

This article analyzes ways in which dance as labor and artist as a specific subjectivity relate to the material conditions of their production within contexts shaped by neoliberal notions of freedom, ideologies of liberal democracy, and the logic of global capitalism. The discussion focuses on contemporary dance practices that embody some of these values by striving to be more egalitarian, thus giving performers more agency in how they participate in creative processes that lead to a collectively created performance work. This analysis emphasizes the tension between these collaborative practices and modes of producing and distributing financial and symbolic, as well as cultural forms of capital in ways that resist and/or reproduce exploitative aspects of capitalism. Examining some works by Yvonne Rainer, Xavier Le Roy, and Tino Sehgal enables the theorization of the entrepreneurial artistic archive as well as practices of crediting creative labor in relation to notions of capital, ownership, collaboration, and consequently who dance-art makers and performers become as politically progressive artists.

Keywords

Xavier Le RoyTino SehgalYvonne Rainerdance ownershipdance capitalismdance labor and performancedance cultural capitaldance democracycontemporary dancepostmodern danceTrio A
Type
Articles
Information
Dance Research Journal , Volume 51 , Special Issue 1: Work With(Out) Boundaries: Precarity and Dance , April 2019 , pp. 47 - 65
Copyright
Copyright © Dance Studies Association 2019 

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Footnotes

I am deeply grateful for the labor, time, and expertise anonymous readers and coeditors of this volume as well as my colleague Anthea Kraut invested in providing critical feedback. In different forms, their insights are present in the strengths this article might have. All weaknesses in the discussion are totally my responsibility.

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