Performative Writing as Documentation

Unfolding annually across four days each year, the workshop Performative Writing as Documentation introduced choreography students to the many forms that documentation can take, as well as the functions it can serve, in a performance practice. In particular, it focused on the slippery status of “the document” itself and its many temporalities, highlighting non-visual forms of documentation, especially creative writing. Each morning, students were introduced to materials from the If I Can’t Dance archive, which were brought into dialogue with short readings, screenings, and the students’ own work. In the afternoons, the group then made visits to exhibitions and events around Amsterdam that connected with the morning’s materials; and, finally, a small writing exercise explored in practice the counter-techniques for documentation discussed throughout the day.