What is the relationship between the site and the creative process in site-specific dance performance?What is the nature of the interaction between site, choreographer, performer, performance, and audience?IN THE recent RESCEN seminar entitled 'Making Space', Doreen Massey challenged the concept of a singular, fixed 'present', suggesting instead that we exist in a constant process of producing 'here and nows' akin to 'being in the moment'. Throughout her address she referred to the concept of 'coevalness', pertaining to a simultaneous experiencing of spaces and places co-existing in time. This article is written in response to Massey's presentation, applying the concept of the 'here and now' to a recent site-specific dance performance, Beneath (2004), created as part of my practice-based PhD investigation into the relationship between the site and the creative process.Throughout this article, Massey's 'here and now' is discussed in relation to the concept of dance embodiment informed by the phenomenological interaction with the genius loci or 'spirit of place'. 1 These concepts provide a framework for analysis of the various phases involved in the production of the performance work, exposing stages that I have called 'Experiencing the Site', 'Expressing the Site', 'Embodying the Site', and finally 'Receiving the Site' in the form of a performance work. These stages are discussed in a linear fashion representing a sense of progression 'through' the process whilst simultaneously reflecting a shift of focus from the choreographer-led early stages of the process through to the collaborative middle stages involving the performers, leading to an analysis of the final audience/performance interface. The term site-specific dance performance is defined as dance performance created in response to and performed within a specific site or location, where dance and movement are the dominant components as opposed to theatre-or installation-derived genres. 2 Beneath was performed in September 2004 in the basement of the Bretton Hall mansion building, 3 an area normally inaccessible to the general public. Whilst involved in the creation of the work I became interested in the nature of the interactive relationship between the site, choreographer, performer, and audience. This paper explores the concept of embodiment as a symptomatic component of In this article, Victoria Hunter explores the concept of the 'here and now' in the creation of site-specific dance performance, in response to Doreen Massey's questioning of the fixity of the concept of the 'here and now' during the recent RESCEN seminar on 'Making Space', in which she challenged the concept of a singular fixed 'present', suggesting instead that we exist in a constant production of 'here and nows' akin to 'being in the moment'. Here the concept is applied to an analysis of the author's recent performance work created as part of a PhD investigation into the relationship between the site and the creative process in site-specific dance performance. In this context the notio...

In this article Victoria Hunter considers notions of spatial translation, ‘present-ness’, and ‘embodied reflexivity’ within site-specific dance performance. Through a discussion of the author's site-specific dance installation entitled Project 3, she explores choreographic processes that aimed to facilitate, transform, and heighten the lived experience of site by the performer and the audience through phenomenologically informed movement inquiry. Forming part of the author's practice-led PhD investigation into the relationship between the site and the creative process, the performance was the third in a trilogy of site-specific works exploring the potential for site-specific dance performance to ‘reveal’ the site through movement, challenging both performers and audience members to engage with new ways of experiencing the site-world. Victoria Hunter is a practitioner-researcher and lecturer in dance at the University of Leeds. Her research is practice-led and is concerned with the nature of dance-making processes within site-specific choreography. She completed her PhD in site-specific dance performance in December 2009.

This article explores the concepts of mobility, transformation and re-location in relation to sitespecific dance performance. Processes and practices of mobility are explored through a consideration of the triadic relationship between performer, audience and site encountered within the author's site-specific dance work The Library Dances (2006). Through the discussion of a creative process, the article explores how the mobile, experiential interplay between performer, audience and site aimed to explore and challenge notions of 'located-ness', fixity and 'place identity'. The Library Dances project began with a questioning of my motivations and experiences as an audience member attending site-specific performance events. What intrigues me is the promise of the unknown and the revelation of new-found realities in familiar/un-familiar places. This process, in effect mobilises my perceptions of the site, its location and identity and my own 'position' within the performance-site world. In this sense, the site is metaphorically freed from its everyday, normative meanings and associations and its identity becomes mobilized through 1 Soundscore excerpt The Library Dances, 2006.

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In this article I explore the potential of site-based dance and performance to influence and inform subjective, cartographic processes of connecting and situating oneself in urban locations. ‘Vernacular mapping’ is explored as a process by which subjective urban experiences, trajectories and associations are mapped by individuals and retained and developed as cartographic tools through which we navigate and negotiate lived environments. The concept stems from critical geography and non-representational theory and proposes a progressive, contemporary approach in which individual routes, trajectories and vectors of mobility challenge the ‘representational certitude of cartography’. From this perspective I consider how encounters with site-based dance and performance might inform vernacular mapping processes and impact subjective-site relations.

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