The future of dance and/as work : performing precarity

This article explores how and to what extent precarity is intertwined with a contemporary dance artist's labour, life and art in the neoliberal society. Throughout this investigation my arguments are supported by insights from an on-going qualitative study that uses in-depth interviews and observations of working processes within the Brussels contemporary dance scene, as well as performance analyses. My hypothesis is that the contemporary dance profession is precarious and this precarity is reflected in the work and lives of the artists, as well as in the aesthetics and subject matter of their artistic work. In a performance of precarity' artists perform their own working and living conditions as their way of broaching the urgent issue, demonstrating their survival skills and exploring several ways to ensure a more sustainable creative future in dance. This article discusses three such performances: Meyoucycle (2016) by Eleanor Bauer and Chris Peck, RECESS: Dance of Light (2016) by Michael Helland, and Only Mine Alone (2016) by Igor Koruga and Ana Dubljevi. What these performances have in common is that they all address the consequences of the neoliberal work regime and explore what can be done to shape a more sustainable future in general, and for dance in particular