Expanding Testimony: Dance performance as a mode of witnessing in Richard Move’s Lamentation Variation

Victoria Thoms

doi:10.1080/01472526.2019.1673111

Expanding Testimony: Dance performance as a mode of witnessing in Richard Move’s Lamentation Variation

Victoria Thoms

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Abstract

In this article I explore dance’s potential to serve as a form of trauma testimony. I first define trauma and testimony and consider how literature, the favored medium of testimony in trauma studies, offers ways to think about dance as a means of bearing witness. I further suggest that dance as a vehicle of expression provides as yet under-explored possibilities for testimony because its embodied character offers new forms of affective witnessing in our troubled geopolitical moment. Specifically, I study Richard Move’s Lamentation Variation, commissioned by the Martha Graham Dance Company in 2007, and ask how the piece reworks the traumatic dimensions of falling that have so prolifically characterized memories of 9/11.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	322-341
Number of pages	20
Journal	Dance Chronicle
Volume	42
Issue number	3
Early online date	12 Dec 2019
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1080/01472526.2019.1673111
Publication status	Published - 2019

Bibliographical note

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Dance Chronicle, on 12/12/2019, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/01472526.2019.1673111

Copyright © and Moral Rights are retained by the author(s) and/ or other copyright owners. A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge. This item cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the copyright holder(s). The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders.

Keywords

9/11
Lamentation Variations
Martha Graham Dance Company
Richard Move
testimony
trauma

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Visual Arts and Performing Arts

Access to Document

10.1080/01472526.2019.1673111

Post-PrintAccepted author manuscript, 506 KB

Cite this

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title = "Expanding Testimony: Dance performance as a mode of witnessing in Richard Move{\textquoteright}s Lamentation Variation",

abstract = "In this article I explore dance{\textquoteright}s potential to serve as a form of trauma testimony. I first define trauma and testimony and consider how literature, the favored medium of testimony in trauma studies, offers ways to think about dance as a means of bearing witness. I further suggest that dance as a vehicle of expression provides as yet under-explored possibilities for testimony because its embodied character offers new forms of affective witnessing in our troubled geopolitical moment. Specifically, I study Richard Move{\textquoteright}s Lamentation Variation, commissioned by the Martha Graham Dance Company in 2007, and ask how the piece reworks the traumatic dimensions of falling that have so prolifically characterized memories of 9/11.",

keywords = "9/11, Lamentation Variations, Martha Graham Dance Company, Richard Move, testimony, trauma",

author = "Victoria Thoms",

note = "This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Dance Chronicle, on 12/12/2019, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/01472526.2019.1673111 Copyright {\textcopyright} and Moral Rights are retained by the author(s) and/ or other copyright owners. A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge. This item cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the copyright holder(s). The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders.",

year = "2019",

doi = "10.1080/01472526.2019.1673111",

language = "English",

volume = "42",

pages = "322--341",

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N1 - This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Dance Chronicle, on 12/12/2019, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/01472526.2019.1673111 Copyright © and Moral Rights are retained by the author(s) and/ or other copyright owners. A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge. This item cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the copyright holder(s). The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders.

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N2 - In this article I explore dance’s potential to serve as a form of trauma testimony. I first define trauma and testimony and consider how literature, the favored medium of testimony in trauma studies, offers ways to think about dance as a means of bearing witness. I further suggest that dance as a vehicle of expression provides as yet under-explored possibilities for testimony because its embodied character offers new forms of affective witnessing in our troubled geopolitical moment. Specifically, I study Richard Move’s Lamentation Variation, commissioned by the Martha Graham Dance Company in 2007, and ask how the piece reworks the traumatic dimensions of falling that have so prolifically characterized memories of 9/11.

AB - In this article I explore dance’s potential to serve as a form of trauma testimony. I first define trauma and testimony and consider how literature, the favored medium of testimony in trauma studies, offers ways to think about dance as a means of bearing witness. I further suggest that dance as a vehicle of expression provides as yet under-explored possibilities for testimony because its embodied character offers new forms of affective witnessing in our troubled geopolitical moment. Specifically, I study Richard Move’s Lamentation Variation, commissioned by the Martha Graham Dance Company in 2007, and ask how the piece reworks the traumatic dimensions of falling that have so prolifically characterized memories of 9/11.

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Expanding Testimony: Dance performance as a mode of witnessing in Richard Move’s Lamentation Variation

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Access to Document

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Victoria Thoms

Cite this

Expanding Testimony: Dance performance as a mode of witnessing in Richard Move’s Lamentation Variation

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Profiles

Victoria Thoms

Cite this