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Alexandra Ditoro

Sarah Cullen Fuller

25 October 2017

DANC 341-101

Dance For Everyone: Finding Ways to Introduce Personal Performance

Oftentimes, dance can be perceived as an elitist art that establishes a disconnect between

the performance and the viewing audience, because of the distance an auditorium stage creates.

Hubbard Street’s site-specific work Space, In Perspective gave the audience an opportunity to

take ownership of their experience. Audience members were able to choose what to watch and

choose what they cared about, they became a part of the performance by breaking typical

boundaries between an audience member and a dancer, and challenged how dance is traditionally

performed. This site-specific work did give audiences some agency over their experience;

however, it is important to understand that this unconventional performance still had restrictions

and boundaries for audience members, and has only scratched the surface of how dance can

intersect into the lives of others by immersing people in the art, through removing traditional

boundaries.

The performance offered audience members to choose the path they would take, with

some structured guidance from dancers, thus choosing what pieces they would see. Once in a

specific location, in my case, backstage, dancers began performing multiple works

simultaneously and within various areas in the space. Audience members also in the space were

in control of where they stood, who they watched, and how they chose to watch. Of course, this

free-will to choose what to watch was somewhat structured, in part because some of them were

led by the dancers to a specific area of the theatre, rather than the person particularly choosing to
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take part in the space’s work. This does not truly give all members complete agency over what

they would like to experience, because they either did not have a choice to go to a certain space,

or did not know they would not see work in other spaces. However, it can be argued that even

though members of the audience may not have specifically chosen where they would experience

the performance, each person has a unique and individual understanding, because they did not

see the same dancers or movement as the people in other locations.

Since audience members may be standing or sitting in unpredictable locations, the

dancers had to be aware of and acknowledge the audience in order to move through the space

carefully and efficiently. Dancers were also reliant on audience members during parts of the

performance that involved interaction, such as dancing or guiding the audience. The dancers

clapped for the audience at the end of the performance. The work unified all as important and

equal contributors to the art that was created in different locations throughout one building.

While the audience was incorporated and necessary to the experience, there was not constant

audience participation. The last half of the performance involved viewers to sit onstage in close

proximity to the dancers, and they solely observed. This is different than the audience being

incorporated into the work, however, it still allows to disassemble the distancing consequences of

performing onstage to audiences sitting far away from performers.

Using a traditional performance space in a way it was never intended to be used is an

innovative way to push the boundaries of where dance can be performed, and also allows for the

audience members to have a more personal and engaging experience with the work. Dance often

creates a barrier between artist and performer. In order to fully immerse all people into

experiencing dance we must bring dance away from impersonal settings, and instead creatively

bring dance to other people. Site specific work such as this could be performed in schools or
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offices, places where people do not expect dance to be performed. In other words, using the

theatre to explore movement and relationships is beautiful, inclusive, and important to better

define dance; however, we should also consider reaching out to people who do not buy tickets to

dance performances, people who may not care to see a performance because of the distance

typical performances create.