Interrogating the creative dance methodologies of Jacques Le Coq, Steven Paxton and Lloyd Newson and how they impact on my own contemporary choreographic practices – with specific reference to Em(brace) choreographed in 2015 and re-worked in 2016 (KZN, South Africa).

Abstract

This half dissertation offers an autoethnographical (and hence, personal) study of the performance and dance/physical theatre training methodologies developed by France’s Jacques Le Coq, USA’s Steve Paxton and Britain’s Lloyd Newson and how they impact on my own growing South African dance practices as choreographer, specifically in the work Emb(race), created in 2015 and re-worked for Jomba! Fringe in 2016. This study focuses on interrogating ideas around training and developing performers for readiness in dance performance. As researcher, I also draw upon theoretical and socio/political ideas around constructions of masculinities and how they may relate to black male identities in the context of South Africa, as these were the themes I worked with in my dance work Emb(race) (2015/6).