Choreographing Contemporary Dance with Objects in Asia: A Review of Literature and Performances

Abstract

The use of stage objects as a dominant performative element in contemporary choreography has become increasingly significant due to its inevitable referentiality, which offers an essential understanding of materiality's potentialities. Five choreographies from China, Taiwan, and Singapore presented between 2015-2019 will be reviewed to anticipate these practices in East and Southeast Asia. This textual and performance review analyses the function of stage objects in chosen choreographies from the perspectives of their functionality, referentiality, signification, and subjectivation. This paper will foreground the marginalisation of objects used in choreographies and practice-based research in the Asia regions.