The Persistence of Dance: Choreography as Concept and Material in Contemporary Art 2023 (by Erin Brannigan)

“There is a category of choreographic practice with a lineage stretching back to mid-20th century North America that has re-emerged since the early 1990s: dance as a contemporary art medium. Such work belongs as much to the gallery as does video art or sculpture and is distinct from both performance art and its history as well as from theater-based dance. The Persistence of Dance: Choreography as Concept and Material in Contemporary Art clarifies the continuities and differences between the second-wave dance avant-garde in the 1950s‒1970s and the third-wave starting in the 1990s. Through close readings of key artists such as Maria Hassabi, Sarah Michelson, Boris Charmatz, Meg Stuart, Philipp Gehmacher, Adam Linder, Agatha Gothe-Snape, Shelley Lasica and Latai Taumoepeau, The Persistence of Dance traces the relationship between the third-wave and gallery-based work. Looking at these artists highlights how the discussions and practices associated with “conceptual dance” resonate with the categories of conceptual and post-conceptual art as well as with the critical work on the function of visual art categories. Brannigan concludes that within the current post-disciplinary context, there is a persistence of dance and that a model of post-dance exists that encompasses dance as a contemporary art medium.” (University of Michigan Press) Read more here

Choreography, Visual Art and Experimental Composition 1950s-1970s 2022 (by Erin Brannigan)

Winner of the 2023 Selma Jeanne Cohen Prize in Dance Aesthetics, The American Society for Aesthetics.

“This book traces the history of engagements between dance and the visual arts in the mid-twentieth century and provides a backdrop for the emerging field of contemporary, intermedial art practice. Exploring the disciplinary identity of dance in dialogue with the visual arts, this book unpacks how compositional methods that were dance-based informed visual art contexts. The book provokes fresh consideration of the entangled relationship between, and historiographic significance of, visual arts and dance by exploring movements in history that dance has been traditionally mapped to (Neo-Avant Garde, Neo-Dada, Conceptual art, Postmodernism, and Performance Art) and the specific practices and innovations from key people in the field (like John Cage, Anna Halprin, and Robert Rauschenberg). This book also employs a series of historical and critical case studies which show how compositional approaches from dance―breath, weight, tone, energy―informed the emergence of the intermedial. Ultimately this book shows how dance and choreography have played an important role in shaping visual arts culture and enables the re-imagination of current art practices through the use of choreographic tools. This unique and timely offering is important reading for those studying and researching in visual and fine arts, performance history and theory, dance practice and dance studies, as well as those working within the fields of dance and visual art.” (Routledge) Read Chapter 1 here

People Like Us: Revolutions in Australian Theatre 2019 (by Julie-Anne Long) chapter in Narrative in performance, editors B. Sellers-Young & J. R. McCutcheon, London: Red Globe Press, pp. 187-204.

RealTime dances: the big picture 2019 (by Erin Brannigan). Following the launch of the RealTime Archive and In Response: Dialogues with RealTime, Erin Brannigan reflects on the relationship between RealTime and Australian dance criticism.

“RealTime’s coverage of Australian contemporary dance was unprecedented. Until their first edition in 1994, the major papers mainly covered established companies and artists presented in ‘legitimate’ theatres, and Dance Australia magazine rarely veered beyond major dance organisations in preview or review. There were very few other outlets for dance criticism so that, more often than one might expect, RealTime was the only place that independent work (the largest sector in the field) was reviewed. This was recently pointed out by Branch Nebula who have depended on RealTime’s support as their only review outlet since 2008 (Brannigan, Interview with Branch Nebula Part 1). Due to the commitment of editors Keith Gallasch and Virginia Baxter to this breadth and depth of coverage, RealTime has been pivotal in writing the story of Australian contemporary dance since the 1990s, mapping national trends by carefully holding ephemeral works in excellent writing that speaks to us across decades. The discourse has fed the form, filling in blank spaces in the mediascape and the archive, and giving voice to artists themselves.” Read more here.

Bodies of Thought: 12 Australian Choreographers 2014 (edited by Erin Brannigan with Virginia Baxter) features a generation of award-winning, innovative Australian choreographers with international reputations and legacies of influence. Focusing on a work by each artist - with an interview and an essay by a leading dance scholar - this groundbreaking book offers invaluable insights into the creation of remarkable works, at a time when Australian dance is enjoying international acclaim. Included in this publication are:

  • Brannigan, E. (2014). Multiple introductory texts. Bodies of Thought: 12 Australian Choreographers. Eds. Brannigan and Baxter. Kent Town SA: Wakefield Press. 1-3, 4-5, 46-47, 92-93, 132-133.

  • Brannigan, E. (2014). ‘Morphia Series: Choreographing Texture.’ In Bodies of Thought: 12 Australian Choreographers. Eds. Brannigan and Baxter. Kent Town SA: Wakefield Press. 138-142.

  • Card, Amanda (2014) ‘Nerve 9: A world with(out) words.’ In Bodies of Thought: Twelve Australian Choreographers. Eds. Erin Brannigan, Virginia Baxter, Kent Town SA: Wakefield Press. 150-159.

  • Long, Julie-Anne (2014) ‘Fine Line Terrain: The geography of dance.’ In Bodies of Thought: Twelve Australian Choreographers. Eds. Erin Brannigan, Virginia Baxter, Kent Town SA: Wakefield Press.