Affective Traces in Virtual Spaces: Annotation and Emerging Dance Scores

This paper considers the role of annotation in three recently developed dance ‘scores’. Synchronous Objects for One Flat Thing, reproduced (Forsythe/OSU 2009), Using the Sky (Motion Bank/Hay 2013) and A Choreographer's Score (De Keersmaeker and Cvejić 2012), each utilize annotation in various ways to analyse, re-present and reveal the shapes, relations and traces of movement. At times annotation provides a hidden methodological tool, helping researchers to systematize features of the works; in other cases it takes the form of written notes, digital inscriptions and spoken articulations. I consider how such methods relate to a codified notational system and draw on perspectives from philosophy (Apostolou-Hölscher 2014; Sabisch 2011) and human geography (McCormack 2013) to consider the aesthetics and ‘affect’ of annotation, highlighting its potential to offer innovative ways to observe, understand and experience dance. This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Performance Research on 15 Nov 2015, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/ 10.1080/13528165.2015.1111048.