Butoh and Surrealism share some common features, three of which are: duality, symbolism and the manipulation of time. This project is an examination of the intersection of these elements and the development of a movement practice using these three, shared focusing lenses of Butoh and Surrealism, culminating in a performance. The methodology of this study sought to generate movement through improvisation and studio exercises based upon a melded Butoh/Surrealist universe developed through applied research in the convergent elements of duality, symbolism and the manipulation of time. The elements that I distilled ultimately informed movement choices shaping a movement offering; a generated example of what could happen when this choreographic process is applied.

Berlin-based Singaporean dance and multimedia artist Choy Ka Fai experiments with digital mapping, the storage and transmission of choreography and Asian spiritual dance practices. He has built a comprehensive and growing archive of recorded choreographies from artistic, spiritual, folkloric, and pop cultural contexts. It includes avatars of dancers, field and video recordings of dances and rituals and interviews with various protagonists. Choy Ka Fai explores altered and expanded corporeal states and the relationships between bodies and both worldly and spiritual phenomena. In his work, organic, material and data-based bodies appear side by side on an equal level and futuristic and queer potentials of human and digital bodies are made visible. In conversation with Lucie Ortmann Choy Ka Fai emphasises the fundamental importance of the practise of archiving for his work. He talks about his methods of showing and sharing his extensive, collected and created material in constantly new formats, ranging from performance, video installation, lecture to digital games, and how he continues to develop it further. He also reflects on the challenging processes of transferring and translating spiritual practises and dance cultures to different contexts and audiences.

Ce projet de recherche en danse est né du désir et du besoin de questionner ma propre pratique artistique en danse contemporaine, en la mettant en perspective et en conversation avec celle de deux autres artistes chorégraphes, Monica Klingler et Barbara Manzetti. L’étude de ces (nos) pratiques, que j’ai qualifiées de «mineures» (au sens deleuzien) a été réalisée en les approchant par le «milieu», dans leur devenir, en les «accompagnant» pendant une période délimitée, celle de la durée de la thèse. Les questions qui dynamisent la recherche concernent les notions de présent et de vivant, contenues dans le terme «processus» : comment rendre compte de processus créatifs au moment même de leur surgissement? Comment se positionner pour pouvoir les décrire, les analyser? Une autre question explorée à travers différentes pratiques d’écriture, dont la thèse, est celle du rôle de l’écriture dans un projet de danse. Quelles pratiques d’écriture mettre en place pour accompagner la danse, pour la penser et pour la partager à travers le langage? L’analyse des démarches artistiques des trois artistes étudiées a été réalisée à l’aide de concepts issus de théories féministes. Elle s’appuie sur la notion de «hors de soi», du choix d’exacerber la vulnérabilité (Judith Butler) ; sur le positionnement des artistes comme des sujets non unitaires, des «sujets nomades» et en devenir (Rosi Braidotti) ; sur la mise en mouvement de formes fluides, changeantes et non réductibles à une œuvre, à l’«un» (Luce Irigaray).La recherche, considérée comme un «processus de danse», a donné forme à différents projets artistiques, Materia Viva, Figuras, Avec le masque, ainsi qu’à l’écriture de la thèse. / The desire and need to question my own artistic work in contemporary dance has led to this project in dance research. To do so, my own practice had to be put into perspective and into conversation with the practices of two other artists, Monica Klingler and Barbara Manzetti. These (our) practices, which I qualify as « minor» (according to Deleuze), were studied in midst, in their process of becoming, and were «accompanied» during the limited lapse of time of this research project. The main questions arise from the notions of the present and liveliness which are contained in the word « process ». How could a creative process be described at the very moment of its emergence? What stance must one take in order to analyse these creative processes?Another main question deals with writing practices. Which is the part of writing in a dance project? Which writing practices should we set up to accompany the dance, to reflect upon it and to share it through language? I have analyzed the artistic approach of the three artists using some concepts taken from feminist theories : « out of oneself», exacerbating the vulnerability (Judith Butler) ; the positioning of artists as non-unitary subjects, « nomadic subjects », and subjects in the process of becoming (Rosi Braidotti) ; and how the artist sets fluid and changing forms in motion, which cannot be reduced to «one» single work (Luce Irigaray).The research project, considered as a « dance process », has given birth to different artistic projects, such as Materia Viva, Figuras, Avec le masque, along with the writing of the thesis.