Liz Aggiss and Billy Cowie; known collectively as Divas Dance Theatre; are renowned for their highly visual; interdisciplinary brand of dance performance that incorporates elements of theatre; film; opera; poetry and vaudevillian humour. Anarchic Dance; consisting of a book and DVD-Rom; is a visual and textual record of their boundary-shattering performance work. The DVD-Rom features extracts from Aggiss and Cowies work; including the highly-acclaimed dance film Motion Control (premiered on BBC2 in 2002); rare video footage of their punk-comic live performances as The Wild Wigglers and reconstructions of Aggisss solo performance in Grotesque Dancer. These films are cross-referenced in the book; allowing readers to match performance and commentary as Aggiss and Cowie invite a broad range of writers to examine their live performance and dance screen practice through analysis; theory; discussion and personal response. Extensively illustrated with black and white and colour photographs Anarchic Dance; provides a comprehensive investigation into Cowie and Aggissrsquo;s collaborative partnership and demonstrates a range of exciting approaches through which dance performance can be engaged critically.
#4388702 in eBooks 2006-04-18 2006-04-18File Name: B000OI0I6O
Review
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful. Jaques Lecoq by Simon MurrayBy Thomas P. JoynerPhysical theatre is better practiced or seen than read about. Lecoq himself apparently acknowledged this reality; since his only book on the subject of his own pedagogy was not published until shortly before his death. Nevertheless; Murray does an excellent job of placing Lecoqs work in the context of Western performance tradition; current theoretical models of the body and culture; and of examining the creative journeys of a pair of theatre companies based in his . . . . well; I dont really want to call it a "method" . . . lets just just say; "based in his explorations of the performing body." For someone aware of Lecoq and interested in pursuing training in physical theatre; this makes an excellent first dive into the waters. Murray even provides you with a sense of what the pedagogical method in a Lecoq-based program will probably be like; and some exercises used in class.Theres not a lot out there on Lecoq yet; in terms of the printed word; but there are now a number of theatre companies and well-known performers and directors (Theatre Complicite; Mummenschanz; Theatre de la Jeune Lune; Bill Irwin; Julie Taymor and most of the "clowns" of the Cirque de Soleil; to name only a few) working with the inspiration Lecoq provided and; as they continue to achieve prominence in the culture; more and more will be written about Lecoq as a result.