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Through the Back

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Through the Back: Situating Vision between Moving Bodies

A collection of essays by Jeroen Peeters on spectatorship in contemporary dance

In today’s visual regime, contemporary dance operates as a critical force. It questions univocal representations and dominant cultural ideals of the body. Developing alternative approaches to physical expression, certain choreographers create body images that are vulnerable and permeable to the world. Their critical and experimental approach challenges and expands spectatorship, including the corporeal, technological and cultural elements that support the ways we see, hear, sense and imagine.
Through the Back: Situating Vision between Moving Bodies seeks to articulate this critical potential in a series of essays that explores the work of experimental choreographers active throughout the noughties: Alexander Baervoets, Boris Charmatz, Meg Stuart, Benoît Lachambre, Vera Mantero, Philipp Gehmacher, Jennifer Lacey and Nadia Lauro, and deufert & plischke.

Details

Jeroen Peeters, Through the Back: Situating Vision between Moving Bodies, Helsinki: Theatre Academy of the University of the Arts Helsinki, Kinesis 5, 2014. Published with the support of Sarma (Brussels). 312 pp., ISBN: 978-952-6670-38-6, 24 €.
http://www.teak.fi/Publications

The book can be purchased online via Sarma (Belgium), Books on the Move (Europe) and Contact Quarterly (USA). And elsewhere:
Amsterdam: International Film & Theatre Bookshop
Berlin: Uferstudios, Tanzfabrik
Bordeaux: Books on the Move
Brussels: Sarma, Kaaitheater
Helsinki: Theatre Academy (TeaK)
Lisbon: O Rumo do Fumo
Porto: Livraria Poetria

Book presentations

Sarma and Kaaitheater presented Through the Back on May 10, 2014 at the Kaaistudio's in Brussels. The dancer Chrysa Parkinson and the performance theoretician Gerald Siegmund introduced the book and engaged in a conversation with Jeroen Peeters, moderated by Tom Engels.

ImPulsTanz presented Through the Back on July 22, 2014 at the Schauspielhaus in Vienna. The choreographers Philipp Gehmacher and Jennifer Lacey 'spoke back' to the author in a conversation hosted by Alice Chauchat. Philipp Gehmacher's statement can be read here.

Oktoberdans presented Through the Back on October 20, 2014 in Bergen with performance theoretician André Eiermann and choreographer Mette Edvardsen in conversation with Jeroen Peeters.

HZT and Tanzfabrik presented Through the Back on November 2, 2014 at Open Spaces in Berlin. The philosopher and curator Stefanie Wenner and the choreographer Martin Nachbar enter into dialogue with Jeroen Peeters.

The Municipal Theatre Rivoli in Porto presented Through the Back on February 20, 2015, with Jeroen Peeters in dialogue with Alexandra Balona.

O Rumo do Fumo and Fórum Dança presented Through the Back on February 23, 2015 at Espaço da Penha in Lisbon. Jeroen Peeters gave a lecture in the series My Dance History.

Audio documentation of the presentations is available here.

Additional texts and reviews

All of Peeters' additional writings in the bibliography of Through the Back, such as interviews, workshop reports and essays are available on Sarma. You find an overview of these texts below. The essays on walk+talk you can find here. The many reviews, interviews, essays and documents written over the years that have nurtured the research towards the book can be found by browsing the artists discussed: Alexander Baervoets, Boris Charmatz, Meg Stuart, Benoît Lachambre, Vera Mantero, Philipp Gehmacher, Jennifer Lacey and Nadia Lauro, deufert&plischke, Heine Avdal, Christelle Fillod, Tino Sehgal, and Trisha Brown.

This collection also includes reviews of Through the Back by Franz Anton Cramer, Philipp Gehmacher, Rudi Laermans and Chrysa Parkinson, an interview with Elena Philipp, as well as an essay by Lars Kwakkenbos on Peeters' dance criticism. These texts can be accessed below.

In May 2014, Sarma launched an Anthology of Jeroen Peeters' complete critical writings.