The starting point for this interpretive study of Jonathan Burrows's (b 1960) choreography is the limited and fragmentary existing literature on his work. Critical essays and performance reviews hint, tentatively, at the idiosyncratic, eccentric and enigmatic qualities of the movement language of this British contemporary choreographer. In this thesis I interrogate the distinctiveness of his performances, arguing that they challenge conventions of co-existing dance genres and techniques, by employing a variety of disciplinary, cultural and theoretical contexts. These frameworks both surround and construct the work, just as they do my interpretations of it: British experimental dance, American early postmodern choreography, recent European performance, ballet and English folk dance; postmodernist and modernist stances. Critical and literary theory provides the methodological framework for the research, which draws on intertextual and hermeneutical perspectives to construct interpretations that take into account the discursive and multilayered nature of the work. Detailed analyses of six pieces created between 1988 and 2006 (Hymns, Stoics, The Stop Quartet, Both Sitting Duet, The Quiet Dance and Speaking Dance) address structural, thematic and conceptual aspects that I have identified as central to Burrows's dance: the composite character of his movement vocabulary, the cultural specificity of his art, his contentious relationship with minimalism and abstraction, his collaborations across arts, and the presence of underlying compositional strategies and intimate motives throughout his work. In moving towards a poetic reading of Burrows's dance, I argue that the specific type of language constructed in his pieces and the distinctive modes of signification they embody, between form and content, rule and transgression, non-referentiality and empathic recognition, suggest an interpretation of his choreography as a form of both poetic language and poetics, that is, as both creative and theoretical practice.

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This document contextualises the practice-led Performance as Research (PaR) project 'The Art of Making Choices: The Feldenkrais Method as a Choreographic Resource'. It demonstrates how the included artistic submissions form an organic whole and substantially contribute to knowledge to the emerging trans-disciplinary field of 'Somatic Informed Dance Practice' (Brown 2011). In an organic, fluid way the document interweaves interpretations of The Feldenkrais Method, a leading twentieth century somatic educational practice, with examples of applications and resonances of such applications within my choreographic practice. The document sets out how my research contributes to the field by exemplifying a dialogic relationship between a 'somatic educational practice' and an emerging 'somatic dance practice', revealing how The Feldenkrais Method can provide an empowering and agency-constituting process for dance-makers and performers within somatic-informed contexts. The proposed trans-disciplinary PaR-methodology, draws on non-linear modes of enquiry and knowledge-creation as tools for embodied choreographic questioning. The document discusses how the undertaken research makes explicit a multi-dimensional range of theatrical applications of The Feldenkrais Method. Drawing on Complexity-Theory considerations this research suggests that The Feldenkrais Method itself offers an embodied, critical, emancipatory and inter-subjective process of discovery and choreographic thinking to the participant and, within performance making contexts, supports collaborative processes of self-organisation of a dance-eco logy, as a process-of-enquiry within a process-of enquiry.

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My choreographic works Fine Bone China, Palpitation and Chimaera form a body of work-drawirrg-on-i-a:panes-e-bu-tefr.-E-a€R----p-roduGtiQ-Il emphasises a, different aspect of butoh, allowing for a study of the difference butoh makes to the process of creation and performance. Fine Bone China explores the interaction between physical score and psychophysical subscore. and the distinction between "figure" and "character". The group work, Palpitation, challenged performers with extreme reduction or distillation (stillness, simplicity and slow motion) and emphasised kinaesthetic listening and response in ensemble work. Chimaera focused on the transformation and objectification of the butoh body. Alongside these performances, original training methodologies developed that contribute to knowledge and understanding of but oh and performer training. Examples of performance and training practice are presented on DVD and in photo galleries. The written thesis reflects critically on the process of making this body of work, and culminates in a consideration of the butoh body as an objectified, marionette-like body, drawing on the famous historical essays of Edward Gordon Craig and Heinrich von Kleist, and terms such as the "dead body" from butoh and the "lived body" from phenomenology are unraveled. The thesis locates the body of work within the wider context of global butoh and contemporary performance. It does not seek a reductive definition of butoh or ask, "what is butoh?" Instead the thesis considers what values are discernible in butoh or butoh-based work? What demands does it place on the performer and on the spectator? What is distinctive about butoh dramaturgy? How do butoh artists train or prepare for butoh, given that butoh is not a technique or a style of performance? What contribution ( difference) has butoh made to late twentieth century dance and performance? What aspects of but oh are transferable and relevant to current, contemporary performance and why have western performers turned to butoh to complement their work? iv

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The dancer's consciousness is an integral component of choreography and performance, but has been afforded little significant attention within dance theory or practice. This thesis aims to investigate the nature of the dancer's consciousness and it develops a model which allows dancers to access particular conscious states in choreography and performance. This model is entitled the Dance Consciousness Model. The model is founded on consciousness theory and, within it, two states of dance consciousness have been defined: intrattentive consciousness and non-intrattentive consciousness. These are based on the states of consciousness described by consciousness researchers, dance theorists and practitioners and theatre theorists. The Dance Consciousness Model comprises methods for examining and accessing the dance consciousness. During the formulation of these methods a variety of theories and practices were explored: phenomenological reduction, the explicitation session, somatics, sport psychology, visual and verbal processing, attention studies, Buddhist Introspection and Bodyweather. Relevant components were extracted from each theory and practice and applied to the discipline of dance. This resulted in the development of a series of methods for examining and accessing states of intrattention and non-intrattention. These methods were explored, by trained dancers, in three empirical projects which comprised exploratory workshops, choreographic and rehearsal processes and performances. The projects were recorded on video and the dancers were interviewed at regular intervals. The analysis of the information collected was combined with the consciousness theory established at the start of the study and resulted in the formulation of a consciousness training programme and the Dance Consciousness Model. The training precedes the application of the model and comprises a series of workshops in which dancers are taught to access, examine and switch between states of intrattention and non-intrattention. The Dance Consciousness Model is believed to be the first of its kind and is intended for application by dancers in the choreography and performance of contemporary dance.

Moderner Tanz sprengt seit Beginn des 20. Jahrhunderts klassische Raummodelle und Zuschauerkonventionen. Nicht mehr (nur) das Guckkastentheater wird choreografisch bespielt, sondern auch andere Orte – von antiken Tempelruinen über Wolkenkratzerdächer bis zum Tiefgaragentreppenhaus. Als temporäre Bühnen sollen sie wiederum auf den Tanz und die Wahrnehmung davon (zurück)wirken. Dieser Beitrag geht von der These aus, dass die bewegte Aneignung, das Aktivieren und Neu-Organisieren von Räumen dabei nicht nur vollzogen, sondern als Prozess auch rezipierbar gemacht und in seinen Möglichkeiten und Begrenzungen reflektiert wird. Er zeigt an Beispielen, wie solche Raum-Bewegungs-Reflexionen als choreografische Auseinandersetzungen mit dynamisierten Orten und Räumen und damit auch als bewegliche Architekturen zu deuten sind.