Imaginative Bodies: Dialogues in Performance Practices

Imaginative Bodies contains a series of in-depth conversations with dancers and choreographers, composers, visual artists, hip hop artists, dramaturges, a lighting designer, and a puppeteer. The overall theme is defined by the body, both in relation to the place it takes in the artist’s work, and in relation to wider debates on the body in philosophy, science, medicine, anthropology, and the arts. Depending on the affinities of the artist, a more specific theme has been defined for each dialogue, ranging from poetics to politics, from mythology to ecology, from intercultural studies to conflict management. The associative chains of thoughts of these talks give an intimate insight into the creative process, inspirations, sources, identity, and ways of collaborating. It is through the sentient body that we experience, know and imagine.

Author: Guy Cools
Editor: Lisa Marie Bowler
Design: Metahaven
Series: Antennae, Arts in Society

Contributors: Sue Buckmaster, Jonathan Burrows & Matteo Fargion, Rosemary Butcher, Dana Caspersen, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Tim Etchells, Antony Gormley, Jonzi D & Soweto Kinch, Akram Khan, Ruth Little, Russel Maliphant & Michael Hulls, Alain Platel, Hofesh Shechter

2016, Valiz | supported by Akram Khan Company, London, Concertgebouw Bruges, Eastman, Antwerp, Fontys Dance Academy, Tilburg, Les Ballets C de la B, Brussels, Sadler’s Wells, London | paperback | 344 pp. | 21 x 13,5 cm (h x w) | English | ISBN 978-94-92095-20-6