Dancing the archive: a study in remembering, re-embodiment and re-enactment

This thesis approaches André Lepecki’s, ‘Body as Archive’, as a choreographic proposal where components of family history and dance lineage are explored, reimagined and repurposed. In particular I investigate my dance history and my family history: my grandparents’ performance history whilst living on remote islands located in the Pacific and Indian Oceans and my family’s connection to the Kamula People, located in the Western Province of Papua New Guinea. This research adopts a practice based methodology, supported by a dance practice and a writing practice. Together they form a comprehensive structure to investigate two key questions that underpin the inquiry: what does the notion of ‘Body as Archive’ produce when exploring my family history and dance lineage? How can this research process translate into performance? This approach produced three different choreographic studies, Family Slide show, Kamula and Round Solo. Each creative response explores a remembering of a different aspect of my family history and dance practice. By combining aspects of my family and dance history and archive with my current performance practice I am able to re-imagine and re-activate parts of my ‘Body as Archive’. Through placing the three studies in a performative context, I am able to share with others my ‘Body as Archive’.