Dancing the landscape

Don Asker

pp. 45-65

in: Karen Bond (ed), Dance and the quality of life, Berlin, Springer, 2019

Abstract

This chapter is concerned with the experience of dancing in and with landscapes. Here landscape encompasses the geophysical materials of the environment at Kiah on the far south coast of New South Wales, Australia, where I have lived for the past decade. I consider landscape to include the geological features and human constructions of this terrain. In this paper, I explore the relationship of dancer and environment. The writing approach is autobiographical, extending to consider the activity of several other dance practitioners committed to dancing in landscapes. I examine the interactivity of body and site – the mutual and reciprocal marking of one on the other. This invites consideration of the responsibilities, ethical behaviors and interrelationships that are ongoing between humans and the landscape. The capacity of landscape to hold affective, social, and mythological importance indicates that we must consciously reflect on the values and beliefs we carry in our relationships to it.