Beyond the studio : the creative process in local, site-related dance

This practice–led research thesis comprises a dance performance and a written exegesis that will make salient and analyse the creative process in site-related choreography. The work explores the repercussions of moving dance making activities away from the traditional studio and considers how choreographic practice might be challenged or transformed when it is pursued ‘on location’ to allow for other understandings of site and location to permeate the choreography. The research includes an ethnographic study on a Northern Territory dance company, Tracks Dance. The object is to illuminate the shifting complexities of the creative process in dance making and document this through analysis of the choreographer’s experience in rehearsals. I detail the company’s creative processes that exist primarily outside of the studio