The knowing body : elements of contomporary performance and dance

This hands-on guidebook to creating and understanding performance pieces offers a behind-the-scenes look at the creative process involved in transforming personal stories to theater. A choreographer herself, Louise Steinman interviews some of the most interesting post-Judson performers of the last decade - Trisha Brown, Ping Chong, Meredith Monk, Whoopi Goldberg, Spaulding Gray, and a host of others. She weaves descriptions of her own path as a writer and performer into a thesis which demonstrates how one can work towards developing an authentic voice. Healing ourselves and the world is possible through art, Steinman says, but we must honor our personal and cultural histories. Steinman describes how these performers use very wide-ranging tools: drumming, shamanic trance dance, ventriloquism, the creation of archetypes to build a character. They use their body's "native language", make use of dreams, memory, and improvisation, and build small stories into larger collective tales, offering warmth and connection. As she says in a new Preface, "stories can be both healing and a radical act".