Embodied narratives : mapping a choreographic signature through physical theatre practice

Abstract

This study attempts to document my emerging choreographic signature through a qualitative, practice-based autoethnographic approach. It describes and examines three of my choreographic works One-way (2010), As night falls (2011) and Chasing (2012) to highlight traces, core images, themes and commonalities in my choreographic processes that provide markers for identifying signature trends in my choreography. As such, this is not a study in choreography per se. The study draws on the theoretical premises of embodied narratives to frame my signature. The study is located in the domain of physical theatre. The study identifies tropes of physical theatre and trends of embodied narratives in order to apply these as analytical tools to my choreographic works in order to define my emerging choreographic signature. Through this self-reflection, I will retrospectively articulate the artistic modes and choreographic preferences my work surfaces by identifying the points of convergence amongst the key choreographic signature trends.