Dramaturgy in Motion: At Work on Dance and Movement Performance

by Katherine Profeta

Dramaturgy in Motion innovatively examines the work of the dramaturg in contemporary dance and movement performance. Katherine Profeta, a working dramaturg for more than fifteen years, shifts the focus from asking “Who is the dramaturg?” to “What does the dramaturg think about?”
            Profeta explores five arenas for the dramaturg’s attention—text and language, research, audience, movement, and interculturalism. Drawing on her extended collaboration with choreographer and visual artist Ralph Lemon, she grounds her thinking in actual rehearsal-room examples and situates practice within theoretical discourse about contemporary dramaturgy. Moving between theory and practice, word and movement, question and answer until these distinctions blur, she develops the foundational concept of dramaturgical labor as a quality of motion.
            Dramaturgy in Motion will be invaluable to practitioners and scholars interested in the processes of creating contemporary dance and movement performance—particularly artists wondering what it might be like to collaborate with a dramaturg and dramaturgs wondering what it might be like to collaborate on movement performance. The book will also appeal to those intrigued by the work of Lemon and his collaborators, to which Profeta turns repeatedly to unfold the thorny questions and rich benefits of dramaturgical labor.

Genres: Theatre, Nonfiction

288 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 2015

Reviews

[Jason Pettus · Rating 4 out of 5]

Logging the last of my 2017 reads today so that they'll count towards this year's Reading Challenge totals. Full review coming in early 2018.

[Marc Weidenbaum · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a tremendous overview of and deep dive into dramaturgy, in particular how it relates to contemporary choreography. Profeta uses her own extensive experience collaborating with the acclaimed Ralph Lemon to talk through the history of dramaturgy and the role of the dramaturg in service of the work (as research source, living memory, sounding board, creative prompt). Much of the writing is drawn from Profeta's project journals, and that material is grounded in a scholarly literature review. I've been thinking about "kinesthetic empathy" and "target culture" and so many other topics continuously since I read it. And despite the focus on dance, the book's applications are widespread. (I came to it primarily interested in sound, and in sound's role in other fields such as dance, but also film, among other areas.) At its heart, Profeta's book can be thought of as being about the art of collaboration (both one-on-one, and in groups), about the roles we play, the roles we swap, and the work that goes into a successful partnership.

[zhixin · Rating 5 out of 5]

All-round excellent analysis and illustration of each step of the process of choreographing a dance. Especially loved the concrete examples drawn from Profeta's collaboration with Lemon, and the details rendered. Wished I had videos of the dances to refer to! Interesting and insightful, I couldn't have asked for a better introduction to the work of dramaturgy in dance.

[Hillary · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cold iced coffee, so cold that your teeth hurt at first sip.

[Eli · Rating 4 out of 5]

chapter on multiculturalism really helpful.

[Mills College Library]

792.8 P96438 2015