Playground Behavior : play and power in a performance

In this paper I question what are the roles of play and power in choreography, reflect on the process and performances of my work Playground Behavior and research what “playground behavior“ is. Playground Behavior was my final individual choreographic project in the final year of my Bachelor‘s studies in Contemporary Dance Practices at Iceland University of the Arts. I will discuss why I decided to work with the subject of play, the sustainability of play, working with audience participation, humor, my practice with playing and how I see the obvious as an alternative to elitism. I also discuss slides (the kind that can be found in a playground), in particular the slide that I used in the performance. I relate my work to relevant theories and artists. I analyse both my work and the broader concept of playground behavior in the context of contemporary dance and in relation to my personal privileged history and present with playing. I have worked physically with scores and improvisation, using the slide as a space, as a partner and as an object. In my artistic research I have explored playing as a means to get to a position of power. I found that play is a highly effective tool in choreography and performance. Through play it becomes unstrange to act irrationally, straightforward to be humorous and somewhat natural to interact with the audience, whilst maintaining power over them