Naive Dance Masterclass

This performance incorporates fictional biography, parody of the branding of contemporary dance and discourse on the nature of volition in an investigation of the role of egoistic desire within the aspirations of the avant-garde artist/performer. It is a parody hoping to transcend its comedic effects and invoke an aesthetic appreciation of the play of flow in the performer; to achieve the sublime by way of the ‘ridiculous’ attempt to dance like a child of four by a man of forty-three. It employs the popular theatrical forms puppetry, narrative and clowning to subvert the prevalent supposition that ‘entertainment’ and ‘art’ are incompatible forms of cultural production, with the proposition that the comedic register is a legitimate mode of research within creative practice that facilities particular communicative possibilities. Its synthesis of populist cultural forms with fine art aesthetics seeks to subvert the modernist (mis)appropriation of the construct of progress within evolutionary processes, and interrogate the value and function of originality in cultural production. Synopsis An electrical fault during a gala performance leads a renowned dancer to the shocking realisation that his effortless brilliance simply leads spectators to more deeply comprehend their own inadequacies. This insight prompts a dramatic change of career into the police force, and the search for a quasi-religious dance practice that transcends egoistic desires through the active pursuit of humiliating experiences. A chance encounter with an immigrant hula-hoopist leads to a romantic entanglement that is to test to the limit the cathartic power of his new dance practice.