At the heart of this research project is a curiosity about writing, dancing and performance. I sustained a regular Proprioceptive Writing practice, alongside performing and touring with Transitions Dance Company 2018-19.
Initially this was with the intention to test a correlation between writing proprioceptively and reducing performance anxiety in a touring performer. However, over the touring weeks and as the paper archive of Proprioceptive Writes grew, the focus of my investigation shifted to the dynamic relationship between dancing, writing and memory and the dancerwriter as archivist. This research document, an installation displaying three canvas collages of Proprioceptive Writes, a thirteen-minute film and a live, performative Proprioceptive Write, are the results of that journey. Written as a Scholarly Personal Narrative, this text seeks to test and try the boundaries of critical, scholarly writing.
Throughout, I will draw on personal experience – some lived experience and some dance-specific, embodied experience – as an attempt to enrich my investigations into writing, dancing and performing.