Performance in Place

Performance in Place features presentations from Christina Paine, Jane Turner and Emma Davenport.

Three speakers will present and the converse on the research topic Performance in Place.

Jane Turner
Choreography and Complexity. My interest in emergence, complexity and chaos emerged from my everyday practice as a choreographer, dancer and educator. Emergent behaviour is the outcome of a complex system, and is generated from the interconnection of similar elements interacting at a local level, responsive to feedback, environment conditions, pattern recognition and indirect control. Through playing out simple rule systems that the most complex, unpredictable, therefore interesting and delightful results emerge. As a choreographer dancer working through improvisation, I am interested in and seek the dynamic patterns - narratives and themes - that emerge from simple beginnings of interconnected people/dancers towards understanding how our ever expanding world works.

Christina Paine
An Female Immigrant Star Singer in London in 1809. The multiple forms of representation of the internationally celebrated Italian opera star Angelica Catalani and her experience as a highly successful female immigrant singer in London, between 1806 and 1814. Catalani gained exceptional privileges, financial success, control of career, access to the public sphere, and personal empowerment, which through her prowess and celebrity; and has shown how her status was built on achievement and adaptability within the opera industry. Important issues in her representation and life concerning her sex, and nationality; and her position and cultural weight as a representative of an upper-class fashion-Italian Opera. These issues intersect with the growing anxiety about female freedom and power; concern to protect and foster burgeoning English National identity in a period of war with France and major transitions in society; concerns with class and access to theatres; and English philanthropy and the effect of Italian opera on British culture.

Emma Davenport
What Impacts upon our Daily Choice of Clothing? An important consideration is where and when we place our bodies during the day. Yet, while usually within an occupational context, there is very little contemporary ethnographic research in this area. However, the emergence of organisations that advise and support others to dress ‘appropriately’ for potential employment suggest clothes play a critical role in accessing new and existing occupational contexts. This is reflected in the suggestion made by anthropologists that occupational identities and professional worth are always located on dressed bodies. This paper discusses my emerging PhD project. To what extent does gender, ethnicity, sexuality, age and kinship inform the proffered dressing practices and what templates or models emerge?

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