Object-Oriented Choreographies: Rethinking Agency and Materiality in Dance

In today’s age, all of our surroundings are affected by human presence. Microplastics are found in ecosystems all over the world, oil leaks occur constantly, water pollution result in coral reef decline and mass extinction of global organic life; even if - through a magical snap of the fingers - humans would suddenly disappear from planet Earth, human presence would live on like a poltergeist in a horror mansion, like a specter, a phantom, a ghost, haunting all organic and non-organic life for the millennia to come. Humans will be absent, but still omni-present.

Dance, in many ways, is fundamentally anchored in the human body. Even when choreographers experiment with scenography, costume or technology, the dancing body remains the central site of meaning, expression and agency. But can dance exist without the direct presence of a human body? What does ‘absent presence’ of the human body look like in dance? When does dance stop being human? Can non-human bodies co-constitute dances and choreographies? Can we create dance environments where (assemblages of) objects are the central choreographic agents?

It is our goal to find ways of dealing with today's inevitable questions more-than-human agency. Our motivation to focus on these issues stems from the belief that a posthuman approach to movement can lead to more inclusive artistic practices, thereby decentering individual identities and foregrounding interconnectedness, vulnerability and reciprocal care. 

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Image: (c) Sarah van Wingerden