Abstract

In The Wise Body: Conversations with Experienced Dancers, UK choreographers Jacky Lansley and Fergus Early interview twelve distinguished dancers from diverse backgrounds and disciplines who continue to enjoy exceptionally long performing careers. They discuss early training, memorable performing experiences, the things that sustain them and the pleasures and challenges of being ‘older’ dancers in a profession in which youth is often idolised. Taken as a whole, the interviews, with their long and international perspective, invite a radical re-appraisal of the development of modern and post modern dance; their varied cultural starting points give rise to serious questions about the meaning of dance as an art form. Lansley and Early are two of the founders of the UK New and Independent Dance Movement and the book reflects wide-ranging concerns with broader concepts than dance itself, connecting the experience of senior practitioners to areas as diverse as health, philosophy, psychology, politics and cross-art form research. The individual voices are fascinating and informative; the cumulative effect of the whole is an extraordinary and unique picture of the world-wide network of independent dancers and their practice.