FULL NAME: Shannon Stewart

- PHONE NUMBER: +1 206.484.8866

- EMAIL: shannonkstewart@gmail.com

- SHORT BIOGRAPHY (400-500 characters) – relevant to the proposal, Symposium theme

Based in New Orleans, Shannon Stewart is a Master of Fine Arts in Interdisciplinary Dance Performance with a specialization in Gender and Sexuality Studies. Shannon has toured nationally and internationally as a performer, filmmaker and choreographer.  She is an activist, writer and guest teaches at multiple universities. In 2016, she was the recipient of a danceWEB scholarship.

____________________________________________________________                                                                                         

TITLE OF THE ACTIVITY:

not about thing: what am I/we/it doing? Body Based Theory Practice (or a dance class in theory)

 DETAILED CONTENT DESCRIPTION (max. 2000 characters):

IDOCDE 2017,

 

I HEAR YOU! 

 

WHAT IS THE POINT?

 

IS IT WORKING?

 

IS SOMETHING HAPPENING?

 

Was something transcended or understood more deeply?

 

Did we manage to perforate some hard edge, some boundary keeping some in and others out?

 

Do we just tell ourselves we did?

 

How can I actually tell?

 

Is this the best use of time and WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?

 

Can we do a thing and be aware of its power and futility simultaneously and does that awareness itself grow into something else?

 

If I can’t figure out the way to answer the questions, can I figure out a way to ask them?

 

 

That is the aim of “not about thing – what am I/it/are we doing?” 

 

*   *   *   *

 

Critical theorists from many disciplines propose that we formulate our identities through repeated quotations, embodied gestures and acts that circulate and reinforce one another.  These things are understood as individual but enacted collectively and reinforce interlocking systems and modes of being that further systems of domination, exploitation and violence.

 

As a dance artist it is interesting to conceive and reconceive of bodily conditioning and training and discrepancies between conscious and unconscious, intentional and unintentional, complicit and coerced.  This learned “repertoire of life” is part of everyday existence and ironically reiterated and reenacted in the field we have chosen. Queer theorists and gender theorists suggest ways in which we can reorient or subvert our embodied inclinations.  Is/can dance be a hopeful intervention in the space between conscious and unconscious? And in what form?  A workshop? A forum? A Performance? A protest? 

 

In “not about thing” I use the conditions of “dance class” to lecture about, perform, and share opportunities to embody theories that conceptualize body, identity, and performativity.

Taking the focus away from making art and talking about or showing things to deconstructing how we make, think, frame, and reside in our bodies in the world. This is not a utopian proposal for collectivity and democracy but for letting go of a fierce hold on linear thinking, fixed identities and bodies, and trying on different ways of being and knowing.  I propose a connection to understanding how fixity and control in our bodies are fiercely connected to the choreographies of oppression that rule most of the world. 

 

SUMMARY OF CONTENT DESCRIPTION AND MOTIVATION (max 400- 500 characters; for publishing)

As a dancer, it is interesting to conceive and reconceive of conditioning and embodiment and discrepancies between conscious and unconscious, intentional and unintentional, complicit and coerced.  This learned “repertoire of life” is part of everyday existence and something that dance artists engage with daily--conditioning, shaping and reading of bodies in time and space.  In “not about thing” Shannon Stewart will use the format of a dance class to lecture about, perform, and lead participants through embodied experiences of theories that conceptualize body, identity, and performativity to ask, what is it we are/could be doing?

 

SHORT BIOGRAPHY (max 60 words for publishing (if co-taught all in all max 60 words)

Based in New Orleans, Shannon Stewart is a Master of Fine Arts in Interdisciplinary Dance Performance with a specialization in Gender and Sexuality Studies. Shannon has toured nationally and internationally as a performer, filmmaker and choreographer.  She is an activist, writer and guest teaches at multiple universities. In 2016, she was the recipient of a danceWEB scholarship.

GENERAL INTERESTS, CODE/KEY WORDS

Embodiment, performativity, habitus, systems of privilege, training, conditioning

__________________________________________________________

Participating requirements (for whom is this workshop for?)

Participants will be asked to move, sometimes vigorously but I am always willing to offer alternatives and modifications. 

TIME REQUIREMENTS (how much time do you need for sharing?)

2 -3 hours

SPACE REQUIREMENTS (what kind of space do you require for your sharing? studio size etc)

Space with a somewhat danceable surface – size can vary.

TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS (what kind of technical support do you require? audio, beamer etc)

Audio and beamer (I can possibly do without projection if need be)

OTHER REQUIREMENTS – comments.

__________________________________________________________

THANK YOU FOR ALL YOUR EFFORTS AND WILL TO SHARE YOUR WORK...