Dancing and Observing: Theories of Contemporary Dance
An anthology dedicated to contemporary dance practices and their relationship to cultural, social, and political realities.
Dancing and Observing brings together essays by Russian and international authors that reflect on the nature of movement through the lived experience of performing, creating, and teaching dance. The collection explores the connections between choreography and broader sociocultural contexts, ranging from everyday life to philosophical inquiry. The diverse perspectives assembled here invite readers to encounter dance through the eyes of theorists, practitioners, critics, and spectators, revealing how the experience of movement can deepen our understanding of our relationships with the world, history, and one another.
All photos: Anna Zavozyaeva
Anna Kozonina (b. 1992) is a researcher and critic of contemporary dance, artist, dance dramaturg, and mediator who has worked across ten countries. Since 2017, Kozonina has written extensively on the work of Russian and European choreographers, focusing on the intersections of somatics, politics, and discourse; forgotten histories of dance; and mediation practices in the performing arts.
Anya Kravchenko (b. 1985) is a dancer, artist, and choreographer. She is a co-curator of the Sdvig studio and the Dance Beyond Self-Absorption and Love festival. She teaches the Artistic Practices of Contemporary Dance MA programme at the Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet and is a co-founder of the Earthly Joys (Zemnye Radosti) dance company.
We recognise that few readers instinctively turn to dance in search of answers to universal human questions. In this sense, one of the aims of this collection is to cultivate such an interest. This book, an invitation to reconsider one’s relationship with dance, is addressed as much to those who have long observed it as to those who feel that dance does not merit close analytical attention. In a way, this book emerged from a lack of spaces for meaningful discussion about dance — spaces in which voices shaped by different historical and geographical contexts might meet and be heard by many.
– Anna Kozonina and Anya Kravchenko, Introduction
The eleven essays by Russian choreographers, dancers, dramaturgs, critics, and researchers were commissioned especially for this volume. The remaining ten texts are translations of works first published in languages other than Russian between 1988 and 2020. The book also includes dance scores, graphic notations mapping movement patterns, and working notes documenting methods of dance-making and performance.
Editors and Compilers
Anna Kozonina
Anya Kravchenko
Editor
Irina Ivakina
Design and Layout
Vasily Kondrashov
Proofreader
Daria Savinykh