PhD/PUBLICATIONS | daisythompson

Overview of PhD research:

Our experience is grounded in the body. The body is the primary medium for dance; therefore, as an art form it should be the basis of radical theories of embodiment. Exploring contemporary dance practices that work at the intersections of dance, ethics and politics, this research develops a concept that I am terming Kinesthetic Strike – a resistance dance that focuses on that what releases when we detach from a society that presents only fixed possibilities. The central focus of Kinesthetic Strike is to discover the capacity of contemporary dance to counter routine and utilitarian exploitation of the labouring body, with a body in motion that produces joyful, positive and durable relationships. I grapple with artistic practice, performance and theory that feels in, thinks in and believes in unlearning the deficient scope of what our bodies are instructed they can be.

I have navigated the research through a multi-modal methodology that includes:

The making process and presentation of Hug, a full length dance piece that I made in collaboration with dancers Rianne Svelnis, Zahra Shahab, Emmalena Fredriksson, and composer Edzi’u.
The making process and presentation of And Everything in Between, a solo that serves as a living archive of my research, with sound by Edzi'u.
circle discussions, interviews and in-studio participation with Vancouver based dance makers Justine A. Chambers, Lee Su-Feh, Ziyian Kwan, and Olivia C. Davies, amongst others.
The development of a theoretical understanding of Kinesthetic Strike that draws from post-structural, Italian autonomist, Black Studies, Queer, and Black feminist arguments on the refusal to deliver labour to capital and the redirection of human energy to social purposes, and that cultivate relationships of care.

Publications:

2022 “Reaching Toward: Seeding Connection Within the Matriarchs Uprising Festival.” Canadian Theatre Review, vol. 192, 2022, pp. 70–73

2019 "Dance Machine: Reflections on the Installation Dance Machine, by Lee Su-Feh, in Backspace: A Special Issue on Dance Studies, Performance Matter Journal, Vol. 5 No. 1, 2019, pp, 132-146

Conferences:

2022 "Rehearsal as Container for Communal Participation and Transformation". Dance Studies Association Conference: Dancing Resilience – Dance Studies and Activism in a Global Age, at Simon Fraser University, Vancouver.

2018 "Kinesthetic Strike: Dance as radical strike within the affective encounter between body and technologies of control" - IX International Symposium: Thinking Affect. University of Buenos Aires.

2013 "Exploring Intersectionality Through Performance" - University of Victoria, B.C. Presented in collaboration with Dr. Rita Kaur Dharmoon.

2012 "Play Role". Dance Under Construction XIII conference: ‘Re-imagining Archives in Motion’, UC Riverside, US.

Public Discussion:

2021. Dumb Instrument Dance partnered with Dance In Vancouver to host Spheres, which responded to a chat between DIV curator Angela Conquet and Dumb Instrument’s AD, Ziyian Kwan - during which the two discussed interstitial movement in artistic practice:

Kinesthetic Strike: A circle discussion led by Daisy Thompson in conversation with guest speakers, guided around the idea of rehearsal as a way to imagine, practice and disseminate joyful, positive and durable relationships. Centered around the concerns of the disproportionate and fatiguing labour of artists, when our art processes and practices are so closely entwined with the art market, this circle discussion will discuss how dance rehearsal – including the creation of the spaces to rehearse, and the advocacy of the conditions to work – can contribute to healthier connections through interdependent relationships of care.

Sunday 28th December 2021 | 1 PM - 4 PM - With Ziyian Kwan & Jessica Wadsworth.

Monday 29th December 2021 | 3 PM - 5 PM - with Justine A. Chambers, Tara Cheyenne Friedenberg & Deanna Peters.