Exquisite Corps
An Exquisite Photo Series
“Our entire body, like it or not, enacts a stunning resurrection of the dead just as we advance toward our own death.” – Elena Ferrante
“Exquisite corpse” is a French surrealist game that can be used as a method for creating collaborative work. Each person contributes without necessarily seeing what comes before or after, resulting in a completed piece with random combinations.
Our bodies themselves are exquisite corpses because they “enact a stunning resurrection of the dead." We resurrect places, times, and other bodies both living and dead. In Exquisite Body, I deploy exquisite corpse as a method to explore how a dancing body is assembled.
Learning a dance technique does not just teach a specific way of moving the body, it also brings with it other bodies, histories, spaces, values, times, cultures, and knowledges. Using photos of myself dancing different techniques in different places and times, I use exquisite corpse to understand how multiple dance genres or techniques can operate in my own body.
2020-2022 photos, microsoft word, text
I am between places in Victorville, CA; Queens, NY; and San Diego, CA; and between spaces, in a hālau, at home, and in a coffee shop. I am between times in 2019, 2017, and 2018. I am between dance forms, hula, bachata, and ballet. I dance with a group, with my cousin, and alone. I am wearing flip flops; I am barefoot. I am mid turn, mid hip tut, and sur le coup de pied. Both still and moving. Both grounded and stretching. This is my dancing body caught in moments, in movements.
Corps
