Anarchic Dance
Anarchic Dance was published by Routledge for Taylor and Francis in January 2006 and is edited by liz aggiss and Billy Cowie with Ian Bramley.
It consists of a book and DVD-ROM, and is a visual and textual record of the work of aggiss and Cowie. Assembled is a broad range of writers: Donald Hutera, Dr. Carol Brown, Deborah Levy, Dr. Marion Kant, Dr/Prof. Valerie Briginshaw, Claudia Kappenberg, Ian Bramley, Prof. Sondra Fraleigh, Dr. Sherril Dodds, who contribute to this publication using their specialist knowledge to create a wider understanding, interpretation and context of the processes, practices and performances of aggiss and Cowie. This book is illustrated with a series of black and white, and colour photographs. The included DVD-ROM features extracts from the live and screen work.
As much as aggiss and Cowie’s practice is hybrid, maverick and indefinable, the various theories presented are equally challenging, lively and fresh. Each essay analyses specific performances, discussing the subject matter and its execution using for example feminist philosophy, post structuralist discourse, historical analysis of Expressionist and Grotesque Dance, film theory, creative prose and conversation. The book’s insights provide a comprehensive investigation into their collaborative partnership and demonstrate a range of exciting approaches through which dance performance can be critically engaged.
Reviews
liz aggiss and Billy Cowie dedicate Anarchic Dance to themselves, in celebration of their long-term collaboration and friendship. And good on them: their moment has come, and Aggiss and Cowie are a formidable team.
Total Theatre Vol.18/1 Spring 2006
With honesty and directness, the artists explain how they work, and the influences upon it, while others provide insightful analysis and context. Academic perceptions are seriously and accessibly brought to bear on the output of Aggiss and Cowie's more than 20 year collaboration - deconstructing and discussing it in terms of feminism, hybridity, Expressionism, the "grotesque", abstraction and narrative, linguistic play and addressing the multiple and playful textures that define it: sound, space, shape, language.
Lizzy Le Quesne Ballet Tanz
Sparking debate is what Divas' work has always done and Anarchic Dance will no doubt continue this legacy. If you are a dancer, student of dance, dance enthusiast or someone who is interested in artists who continually seek to push boundaries, I recommend reading this book.
Lisa Haight for londondance.com
The most exciting thing about this publication is the inclusion of a DVD, which features extracts from the work. These segments are included as an illustration to the text and the analysis being undertaken and are a wonderful addition to the book. This brings the book alive somehow, animating its text through showing fragments and sections of the performance work of Divas. This makes the analysis comprehensible and more fully engages the reader through encouraging me to also be a viewer of the work.The span of voices and approaches to these works, from the academic, to the critic and the practitioners.... seems appropriate in relation to the performances and the necessity to work between genres and ideas. It does also create a sense of energy and dynamism.....from very detailed choreographic and structural analysis, to the more anecdotal and personal. As a documentary record of a performance company, it slips between personal recollection and objective analysis, individual histories and public contexts, in turn defying easy literary categorisation. It arguably includes too many ingredients but it is an enjoyable and enlightening read.
Gianna Bouchard Contemporary Theatre Review 18:3 Aug 2008
References
Available from: www.routledge.com: www.dancebooks.co.uk: www.amazon.co.uk
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