Symposium
Movement: From Score to Documentation – Approaches to performance and dance through processes of notation, collection and archiving
Organisation: Arta Sperto as part of DFTL26 and Jérôme Leuba, artist
How does a performance or choreographic work come into being? How can it be transmitted, collected and documented? Looking at what happens before and after the moment of performance itself, this symposium explores questions surrounding the creative process, which often first takes shape on paper. It also explores the various ways of moving from one medium to another, oscillating between a faithful attempt to document live art and its complete recreation in another form, notably through literature.
The symposium draws on scores, notations and other forms of documentation relating to performances featured at DFTL26 and presented in the exhibition at Le Commun. It takes stock of current thinking and practices in this field, bringing together researchers and other specialists, including contributors to several recently published studies on these questions.
On the occasion of the publication of the following books:
- Il y a plusieurs manières de traverser une gare – Récits de performances infiltrées dans l’espace public, by Jérôme Leuba, with texts by Anne Bénichou, Alain Freudiger, Camille Paulhan and Anaïs Wenger, art&fiction publications, 2026
- Life-Performance sammeln. Ein Handbuch zur Handhabung flüchtiger Kunst, published by Peter Lang Verlag, 2026. Research project funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation – Hochschule Luzern HSLU, led by Rachel Maeder and Wolfgang Brückler, 2026
- Revolving Histories on translocal performance art Switzerland, edited by Andrea Saemann, Chris Regn, Lena Eriksson, Margaret von Büren, Muda Mathis and Sabine Gebhardt Fink, ATLAS + READER, Vexer, 2026
- Page à la main – Lucinda Childs et les pratiques de danse lettrée, by Lou Foster, Macula, 2026
- Chorégraphies. Dessiner, danser (XVIIe-XXIe siècles) – Chorégraphies, écriture et dessin, signe et image dans les processus de création et de transmission chorégraphiques (XVe-XXIe siècles), edited by Pauline Chevalier and Amandine Royer, co-published by INHA, Liénart, and the Musée des Beaux-Arts et d’Archéologie de Besançon
- Dance First Think Later – Le corps pensant entre danse et arts visuels, vol.1, 2024 and vol.2, 2026, published by Arta Sperto, distributed by Les presses du réel
Other publications that the symposium will refer to will be added to this list.
Speakers:
- Anne Bénichou, Alain Freudiger, Jérôme Leuba and Anaïs Wenger, discussing the book Il y a plusieurs manières de traverser une gare
- Rachel Maeder, discussing the book Life-Performance sammeln
- Andrea Saemann, discussing Revolving Histories
- Lou Foster, discussing the book Page à la main and the three-part exhibition Lucinda Childs – Danser page à la main
- Béatrice Josse, curator, researcher and lecturer, notably director of FRAC Lorraine from 1993 to 2015
- Olivier Kaeser, discussing Dance First Think Later – Le corps pensant entre danse et arts visuels, vol. 1 et 2
- And Jérôme Leuba, battlefield #168, living sculpture, 2026
Further speakers are planned; the programme is currently under development. Updates to follow.