Thursday, February 14, 2013

2/19: Doran George

Please join us at our next CHEW ON THIS:
Tuesday, 12/19/13 at 12pm
Kaufman conference room, 160

PRESENTER: DORAN GEORGE

Moving constructions of nature: dancing the Somatically trained body from collective resistance to compliant individuality.

Dramatic historical change defines a lineage of “Somatic” contemporary dance practice based on the idea of universal human physiology and subjectivity. Biological and mechanical constructs form the logic for dance classes, which are said to uncover “natural” movement that emphasizes authenticity, individuality, and harmonious cooperation. By the 1970s, alliances and interconnected pedagogies had formed a transnational web of associations between artists and institutions teaching Somatics in several post/industrialized “Western” locales. Principles in the rhetoric of Somatics sustained three distinct phases of development: over forty years dancers embodied transformation in the conception of democratic participation, self-representation, and capitalist productivity. 1970s collective participation was established to achieve “direct democracy,” as practitioners critiqued established modern dance, fueled by mistrust of “representative democracy” and hierarchy. The 1980s and 1990s saw the recalibration of Somatics to staunch individuality in identity-based protest choreography, even while “signature choreography” was marked in a new arts business-growth culture. By the close of the 20th century the widespread institutionalization of Somatics embodied late capitalist appropriation of previously critical practices: Personal responsibility and individual freedom for dancers has purportedly displaced authoritarianism, yet ‘natural’ self-determination and flexibility are requirements serving the smooth and efficient running of an unequal economy.


Doran George is a dance artist completing a doctorate at U.C.L.A. on ‘Somatic’ training in contemporary dance. He has received arts funding from L.A. Cultural Affairs, London Arts Board, Arts Council of England, British Council, Finnish Arts Council, venue commissions and regional funding. Doran has danced for various choreographers, and works as a mentor, most recently through the California Choreographers In Mentorship Exchange program, and The Wellcome Trust in London. He also uses performance to investigate social problems like bereavement and diagnosis with terminal illness. Doran has chaired academic conferences and presented numerous symposia in the arts. He is in print and on the web in dance, film, and performance art journals and art publications, and has chapters in forthcoming Oxford University Press publications. He teaches in universities, art colleges, and professional dance settings. Doran trained at the European Dance Development Center (NL) and completed an M.A. in Feminist Performance at Bristol University (U.K.)