Choreographies of Difference-Making

Chapter 3 establishes the discursive frame for a South-South Contemporary Dance. Beginning with a reflection on principles of becoming, that are then linked to meaning-making, signification, and transformation, it suggests that recurrent practices of just world-making, connecting with local ecologies, healing, and spirituality are core to this different choreographic mode. It also reimagines some of the hallmarks of contemporary dance from the perspective of South-South artists, revealing the under-side of the concepts favored by Euro-American constructions. It works through the multi-dimensional work of decolonization that artists must take on as they mark their difference in contemporary dance-making. This chapter argues for the value of aesthetically specific practice, especially in differentiation from the pedestrian vocabulary of postmodern dance. Ultimately, it reflects on the absent communities conjured through such specific practice, and why such invocations are crucial to the justice-based self-definition of contemporary dance and its reconstituted global stage.