Multiplicity, Embodiment and the Contemporary Dancer

Jennifer Roche is Lecturer in Dance at Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia. She has worked extensively in contemporary dance as a performer, choreographer and company director and was the dance adviser to the Arts Council of Ireland. Her research explores the dancer's creative practice from philosophical, somatic and narrative perspectives.

• Introduction 1. Dancing Multiplicities 2. Descending into Stillness: Rosemary Butcher 3. Veils Within Veils: John Jasperse 4. The Shape Remains: Jodi Melnick 5. From Singular to Multiple: Liz Roche 6. Corporeal Traces and Moving Identities 7. Further Iterations and Final Reflections Notes Select Bibliography Index

'How refreshing is this academic research written through the lived experience of a dancing performer. Dancers' embodied engagement with choreographic process and performance often slips through the net of academic research. Considered as ephemeral dancers' contributions remain unspoken and undocumented. In this book the author's voice vibrates loud and clear, as she allows us access to her thinking and movement-based research working as a dancer with four internationally recognized choreographers. Taking ownership of each stage of production, commissioning, choreographic process and performance, Jenny Roche documents the heart of her practice dancing contextualizing her experiences with a breath of knowledge drawn from philosophical and artistic sources. Yet this is more than a personal story. The author offers independent contemporary dancers a model for developing stylistic moving identities through practice led research that recognizes the powerful contributions made by dancers to choreographic process.' - Emilyn Claid, Roehampton University, UK