Stepping into history : biography as approaches to contemporary South African choreography with specific reference to Bessie's Head (2000) and Miss Thandi (2002)

Snyman, Johannes Hendrik Bailey

Title: Stepping into history : biography as approaches to contemporary South African choreography with specific reference to Bessie's Head (2000) and Miss Thandi (2002)
Creator: Snyman, Johannes Hendrik Bailey
Subject: Head, Bessie, 1937-1986
Subject: Maqoma, Gregory -- Miss Thandi
Subject: Derrida, Jacques -- Criticism and interpretation
Subject: Biography
Subject: Choreography -- South Africa -- History
Date Issued: 2003
Date: 2003
Type: Thesis
Type: Masters
Type: MA
Identifier: vital:2154
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1004678
Description: This mini-thesis is located in historical discursive practices, choreographing history, biography as a source for making dance in South Africa and choreographic transformations in South African choreography since the 1994 democratic elections. Derridian concepts of deconstruction will be referenced in an attempt to focus the argument of this research, which comments on choreographic transformations since 1994, by subverting the influence of the 'violent hierarchies' enforced by the apartheid regime on South African cultural life and choreographic identity. The researcher draws on these considerations in order to explore the hybrid nature of South African choreography that has emerged since 1994. Chapter one examines the fallacious nature of historical discourse through a consideration and application of Derrida's notions of deconstruction and fabrication. Chapter two explores the notion of choreographing history in theatre through a focus on the objective/subjective fallacy and the history of the body as a textual medium. Chapter three focuses the study specifically in biography as a discourse within the idea of theatre. This approach to biography can be encapsulated by the phrase 'telling lives'. This chapter also explores the relationship between the traditional binaries of writing as a purely cerebral act and choreography as a purely visceral experience. Chapter four brings the focus to the specific post-apartheid South African context. This chapter considers the hybrid forms of dance emerging in South Africa as well as the notion of protest in relation to theatre and dance. The final chapter is an investigation and analysis of two choreographic works created by South African choreographers since 1994 in relation to biography and concepts of deconstruction. These works are Gary Gordon's Bessie's Head (2000) and Gregory Maqoma's Miss Thandi (2002). The focus of the analysis also reveals the inherent difficulty in objective interpretation, and considers the problematics of collaboration and autobiography when choreographing within a biographical context.
Format: 186 leaves
Format: pdf
Publisher: Rhodes University
Publisher: Faculty of Humanities, Drama
Language: English
Rights: Snyman, Johannes Hendrik Bailey

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