Impure Gestures Towards 'Choreography in General': Re/Presenting Flemish Contemporary Dance, 1982-2010

Contemporary dance in Flanders only emerged as an autonomous artistic field during the 1980s. This article first identifies some of the main factors thatcontributed to its rise and recent institutionalization. It goes on to introduce three central subgenres, drawing on categorizations routinely used by members of the Flemish dance community to make sense of their professionalenvironment. Every subgenre is briefly introduced with reference to the work of particular Flemish choreographers and further analysed from a more theoretical point of view. 'Pure dance' will be discussed against the backdrop of aesthetic modernism, invoking Jacques Derrida's notion of 'trace'. Flemish 'dance theatre' will then be related to its German counterpart and to Giorgio Agamben's concept of 'gesture' to arrive at crucial reflections on the gap between presence and representation in live performance. Finally, the field of conceptual or (self-)reflexive dance will allow the notion of 'dance/choreography in general' to be introduced. This idea attempts to encompass a central aspect of contemporary dance in Flanders today that traverses the three subgenres and points to an expanded understanding of dance that choreographs non-human elements of the performance as genuine performers. © 2010 Taylor & Francis.status: publishe