Showing Dance

The lecture performance is a format in contemporary dance, established since the 1990s in various pieces by choreographers and performers from different fields. This chapter draws on the history, aesthetics, and theory of the lecture performance from modern dance and the avant-garde to postmodern dance, and discusses examples of contemporary lecture performance, including Xavier Le Roy, Jérôme Bel, Lindy Annis, Martin Nachbar, among others. Starting from current definitions of “performance,” the chapter focuses on questions of the “solo”—the model of showing/demonstrating that is part of the performative and epistemic presentation of the lecture performance—and questions of gesture and movement, and shows the different formats choreographers have developed for the lecture performance. It also traces the question of media and the intersection of art forms, and shows how audiovisual media are integrated in the process of lecturing/performing.