Citational Poetics in Dance: “... of a Faun (Fragments)” by the Albrecht Knust Quartet, before and after 2000

Poétiques de la citation : “... d’un faune (éclats)” du Quatuor Albrecht Knust, avant-après 2000

Isabelle Launay (1)

1 Laboratoire d’analyse des discours et pratiques en danse

For Walter Benjamin, modernity has required that we find a different way of connecting with the past - one that would replace transmission with citationality. In dance, the challenge of citation to the prestige of oral person-to-person transmission of a dance has introduced this new way for contemporary artists to relate to and re-embody past works. We examine this citational poetics in dance in the piece “... of a Faun (Fragments)”, 2000, by the Albrecht Knust Quartet, who explore three kinds of material and modes of citation of “L’Après-midi d’un faune” de Nijinski in a series of sequences that the montage contrasts and examines: the “murmur” and images of the legend and the orals traditions; the choreographic material as it has been notated in the score for “L’Après-midi d’un faune” and interpreted by six different dancers; the material consisting of extensive improvisations based both on the dancers’ memory and lack thereof (citations and autocitations by the dancers). Far away of the modernist dogma based on the idea of possession of work, far from the classic principle of variation, this piece explores the creative work of genealogy in dance.

Keywords: Afternoon of a faun; Dance score; Quotation; Memory; Reenactment

Domains: Musicology and performing arts

Isabelle Launay. Citational Poetics in Dance: “... of a Faun (Fragments)” by the Albrecht Knust Quartet, before and after 2000. Dance Research Journal, 2012, Winter (n° 44/2), p. 49-69. ⟨hal-02293858⟩