Dr. Shuntaro Yoshida focused on participatory choreographic practice in contemporary dance and presented the connection between ‘post-choreography’ and ‘clumsy movement’. He shed light on the choreographic practice of the French choreographer Jérôme Bel, who is active in the fields of performing arts and contemporary art. The focus was on ‘Atelier danse et voix’ (Dance and Voice Workshop; 2014) and workshops held for local diverse participants in Brussels, Venice, and Munich, and ‘Gala’ (2015). The lecture aims to elucidate Bel’s creative method by exploring the relationship between the choreographer and the participants in a situation where the typical framework of actors has been expanded, and addresses the choreographic practices that represent post-choreography in the 2010s. It also investigates the means by which the participants’ clumsy movements ultimately dissolve the choreographer’s initiative. The focus of the case study is not so much the choreographic methodology itself, but the relationship between the method and the participants and the ways in which the choreographer cedes creative decisionmaking power to the participants. Dr. Shuntaro Yoshida applied the methods of investigating the interplay between autonomy and heteronomy previously explored in the context of the theatre and performance. In order to investigate Bel’s creative method, this lecture made use of participant observation field notes taken during rehearsals. Additional data sources included Bel’s research materials, performance programmes, and interviews with the participants.
Dr. Shuntaro Yoshida (b. 1989, Miyagi, Japan) is a dancer, choreographer, and researcher of contemporary dance and performance. He is currently JSPS Post-doctoral Research Fellow at Faculty of Sport Sciences at Waseda University and Visiting Scholar at Universität der Künst Berlin. He has a Philosophy-Ph.D. at Tokyo University of the Arts. Yoshida was a Visiting Scholar in the Department of East Asian Studies at New York University from 2018 to 2019 and was the recipient of a JSPS Research Fellowship for Young Scientists from 2017 to 2019. From 2013–2015, he earned a Master’s Degree in the Department of Dance at University Paris 8 and attended French choreographer Jérôme Bel’s research workshops in several cities across the world (Brussels, Munich, Paris, Seine-Saint Denis and Venice). His research examines the practices and theories of “post-choreography” as they relate to the notion of participation in the social context. Recently, he finished writing his dissertation “Post-choreography as choreographic practice in contemporary dance: Clumsy-seeming movement and Jerome Bel’s choreography” (2020). The book proposal for his monograph titled Post-choreography: Choreographic Practice and Movement in Malfunction has been well-received by Routledge. He is part of the artist collective “Mapped to the Closest Address” from 2018. He awarded Saison Air Partnership of Saison Foundation in 2020, Tokyo and Graduate Student Travel Award of Dance Studies Association in 2019, Chicago. Since 2021, he has served as Associate Editor at the Tokyo Academic Review of Books.
Website: https://shuntaroyoshida14.wixsite.com/shun
Co-website: https://www.mappedtotheclosestaddress.com
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Interview
Participant I：6, September 2019 (Montfermeil, France)
Participant J：6, September 2019 (Montfermeil, France)
Participant E：7, September 2019 (Pintin, France)
Participant L ：7, September 2019 (Pintin, France)
Participant AL：26, November 2019 (Tokyo, Japan)
Participant AT：26, November 2019 (Tokyo, Japan)
Participant AZ：26, November 2019 (Tokyo, Japan)