My life as a dancer? – A Practising Investigation in/on My Artistic Practice / Yik Chit Tsui (2023)

This document reflects my journey from September 2021 to July 2023, encompassing my experiences of travelling from Hong Kong to London and my learning journey on MFA of Creative Practice in Dance Professional programme at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance. This document consists of selected entries from my reflective journal, aiming to bridge my creative and theoretical research in relation to the programme’s modules, research and sharings. In this document, I predominantly write in the present tense to emphasise the first-person engagement, highlighting my auto-ethnographical approach as an independent dance artist. My intention is to underscore the intimate link between manual gestures and inscriptive traces (Ingold, 2016, p.4), and to practise choreography with words. In other words, I employ a performance-making strategy to arrange words in this document (digital space). For example, I utilise different registers of writing, including reflection, critical analysis, lists and more. These various registers enable me to shift perspectives and allow my voice to flow onto my notebook and laptop from different viewpoints. My aim is to portray unnameable sensations in a poetic and imaginative manner, interweaving these with analysis. Inspired by Johanna Drucker’s book Diagrammatic writing (2023), I employ varying font sizes and colour to show what is important for me while facilitating readers’ navigation through this document. In the Introduction section, I will introduce my starting point, drawing from the works and writings of choreographer Maya Deren and architect Juhani Pallasma. They influence, inform and guide my practice. I will explain my practice as research as a perpetual and iterative cycle. In the Research Strategy section, I will explain my strategy and attitude towards research inspired by philosopher John Wilson. His method of categorising questions into three types inspired me to use question cards to scrutinise my own facts, concepts, and values, while drawing on my practice, reading, and experiences. 4 In the Research Background section, I will provide insight into my background, including cultural influences, dance training, language and translations experiences. These aspects inform my approach to the process of understanding. In The Research section, I will introduce my research framework – Body Map, devised during this project as a way of organising and understanding. This framework can be applied to different strands of my practice. These strands included text, moving images, and bodily practice. This Body Map consists of seven layers. ● Layer 1 “Touch and See” identifies movements through bodily simulation and information. ● Layer 2 “Sensation Memories” is to accumulate, linking bodily experiences to emotions and memories. ● Layer 3 “Editing/Choreograph/Grammar” is organising and structuring. ● Layer 4 “Shape/Body Design/Gesture” is the editing and choreographing process. ● Layer 5 “Relationship/Kinesphere” is the selection process. ● Layer 6 “Context/Situation” is contextualisation. ● Finally, layer 7 “Architecture/Environment/Surroundings’ is addressing the wider context in relation to cultural, social, political, economic and geographical backdrop. All layers are permeable and inform each other. In this document, this framework focuses on my past two years of learning (2021-2023) and decision making on my final presentation, I also acknowledge my learning has been informed by my previous experience as an independent solo artist. Finally, in the Forward Looking section, I acknowledge my research will continue to evolve beyond this course and made a commitment to myself through my letter to Dance, followed by an excerpt from a visual poem titled My life as a dancer?. This visual poem is presented as a booklet with my final presentation, illustrating the interweaving life and dance of mine.