Social Choreography and Social Drama (a dialogue)

Ana Vujanović and Bojana Cvejić initiated a research about “Performance and the Public” in the frame of TkH [Walking Theory] three-year long project “How To Do Things By Theory” at Les Laboratoires d'Aubervilliers. In the current phase of the research, Ana Vujanović, Bojana Cvejić and Marta Popivoda focus on “social choreography” and “social drama”.

“If the body I dance with and the body I work and walk with are one and the same, I must necessarily entertain the suspicion that all of my body’s movements are, to a greater or lesser extent, choreographed”.

This would be a concise statement of the social choreography thesis, as Andrew Hewitt develops it in "Social Choreography: Ideology as Performance in Dance and Everyday Movement" (2005). Social drama, as developed in social anthropology by Victor Turner in the 1970s serves as a complementary counterpart to social choreography, which analyzes conflictual social processes, focusing on organization of public performances that take place in the frame of social dramas. Social choreography and social drama then become interpretative tools for exploring the performances in the public on the basis of their claim that social order isn’t just reflected but is enacted and rehearsed as an aesthetic order. The two models focalize bodily gestures and movements, organization of bodies in time and space, mise-en-scène, and dramaturgy of public gatherings and mass social events and thus discuss the functions of “communitas” in shaping social community between the public and the private spheres. In this phase of the research, we examine state performances as well as performances of the public and its citizens informed by two different contexts, socialist Yugoslavia and contemporary Western neoliberal capitalism.

They have previously presented the research project through open days in Het Veem Theatre in Amsterdam, Les Laboratoires d'Aubervilliers in Paris and Tanzfabrik Berlin/Uferstudios in Berlin and two presentations, talks in Per.Art/Gallery Matica Srpska in Novi Sad, Serbia. The final presentation will be in Paris in the form of open studio in Les Laboratoires d'Aubervilliers in December 2012.

Apart from working in different ways in the course of the research - from theoretical research and research in video archives, over workshops and working sessions to public programs like open days - the project will result in the book "Performance and the Public", Ana Vujanović and Bojana Cvejić (published by Les Laboratoires d'Aubervilliers, Paris & b_books, Berlin) and the documentary film "Yugoslavia, how ideology moved our collective body" by Marta Popivoda (produced by Les Laboratoires d'Aubervilliers, Paris; Tkh, Beograd & Berlin University of the Arts which both will be launched in December 2012.

Ana Vujanović and Bojana Cvejić are co-founding members and editors of TkH (Walking Theory). TkH (Walking Theory) is an independent (institutionally non-aligned, extra-academic) platform for performing theoretical-artistic activism. It is initiated and run by the editorial collective TkH whose members are eight theorists, artists and producers coming from performance theory and practice, theater, cinema, and visual arts.
http://www.tkh-generator.net

Ana Vujanović is a freelance worker – theorist, researcher, writer, lecturer, curator, dramaturge, etc. – in contemporary performing arts and culture. She holds Ph.D. in Theatre Studies.
She is a co-founding member of editorial collective of TkH (Walking Theory), theoretical-artistic platform, Belgrade, and editor of TkH journal for performing arts theory. Her particular commitment is empowering the independent scenes in Belgrade and Yugoslavia (Druga scena). She has lectured or given workshops at various universities (University of Arts in Belgrade, University of Amsterdam, etc.) and numerous independent educational programmes. She engages in artworks in the fields of performance, theatre, dance and video, as dramaturge, co-author and collaborator. She publishes regularly in journals (TkH, Maska, Frakcija, Teatron, Performance Research among others) and collections; and is author of three books, most recently "An Introduction to Performance Studies" with A. Jovićević (2007). She is currently running the research project Escenas discursivas with Marta Popivoda (Matadero / El Ranchito, Madid). From October 2012 she will be teaching performance studies and dramaturgy subjects at the MA in performance studies at University of Hamburg.

http://www.anavujanovic.net

Bojana Cvejić is performance theorist and maker, working in contemporary dance and performance also as dramaturg and performer. She has studied musicology and philosophy and published in magazines and journals (TkH, Maska, Frakcija, Radical Philosophy, Performance Research) and book collections and is author of three books, most recently "Beyond the Musical Work: Performative practice" (IKZS, Belgrade, 2007) and "A Choreographer's Score: Fase, Rosas danst Rosas, Elena's Aria, Bartôk" (co-authored with Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, Mercatorfonds, Brussels, 2012). With Jan Ritsema she has developed a theater practice in a number of performances since 1999 (a.o. "TODAYulysses", 2000), and has collaborated with X. Le Roy, E. Salamon, M. Ingvartsen, C. De Smedt and others in numerous performances. Her own performance work includes directing five experimental opera performances, most recently Mozart’s Don Giovanni (BITEF, Belgrade, 2009).

She has been active in teaching in a number of European educational programmes (e.g. P.A.R.T.S. in Brussels, SNDO in Amsterdam), as well as organizing independent platforms for theory and practice in performance: PAF (performingARTSforum in St. Erme, France) and 6MONTHS1LOCATION (CCN in Montpellier). She is currently completing her PhD (“Choreographing Problems: Expressive Concepts in European Contemporary Dance”) at the Centre for Research in Modern European Philosophy at Kingston University. Since September 2009, she is teaching contemporary dance and performance subjects at the Utrecht University, Department of Media and Culture Studies.

http://www.bojanacvejic.info