Anatomy of a Dance Work will be a series of publications focusing on the making and performance of one Australian dance work. Continually frustrated by the inaccessible nature of material on dance and performance for artists and audiences outside the academy (deep dive, long form writing often languishes behind paywalls or university aggregators), and also concerned about the lack of publications that go beyond the quick-turn-around reviews of performance, the Anatomy of a Dance Work series will be modelled on an edition of Brolga 36 I edited for Ausdance National in 2012. This was based entirely on Martin del Amo’s Anatomy of an Afternoon which premiered at Sydney Festival 2012. That year we published reflective articles from Martin del Amo, myself, an interview with Martin by artist Matthew Day, and papers by choreographer/dancer Kristina Chan, curator/academic Erin Brannigan and designer/academic Justine Shih-Pearson, with photos by Heidrun Löhr. In the inaugural edition of Anatomy of a Dance Work No.1 we will republish some of this material as well as expand, with new reflections on the memory of, and what remains to say about, the creation and reception of Anatomy of an Afternoon, a work in which Martin del Amo payed homage to Njininksy’s Afternoon of a Faun, created on and with dancer Paul White, with a 2014 season in London.
Anatomy of a Dance Work No.2 will be a study of Narelle Benjamin’s duet Cella, presented in Germany at the Pina Bausch Choreographic Season in 2016, the Sydney Festival in 2018, and Melbourne’s Dance Massive, 2019. Cella was choreographed and performed by Narelle Benjamin with, as it happens, Paul White. Working closely with Narelle Benjamin, we intend this publication to be an in-depth revelation and analysis of the work by its creators and collaborators, with other artists, academics and audiences potentially asked to reflect on the work. We will take a walk through the work’s inspiration and process, its development and performance.
Anatomy of a Dance Work, the series, will have a small-print-run with a web presence.
Anatomy of a Dance Work—an attempt to thicken our relationship with, and memory of, important Australian dance works. Important in whose estimation? Mine!
PLEASE NOTE: This project was delayed due to COVID. We will revisit it in 2023 for publication beginning in 2024.