The Politics Inherent in Movement Appropriation from Visual Art into Dance

Artistic appropriation, the notion of purposely combining pre-existing materials into wholes not known before, is the subject of this chapter. It will examine the political implications of the conscious appropriation of material from visual art into contemporary dance. As Walter Benjamin argues, when “the criterion of authenticity ceases to be applicable to artistic production, the total function of art is reversed. Instead of being based on ritual, it begins to be based on another practice—politics” (“The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction.” in Illumination, 166–195. ed. Hannah Arendt. New York: Schocken Books, 1969, p. 6). It will focus on two choreographers appropriating movement from visual art to dance. The exact movements, gestures, and poses of models drawn by the Viennese painter Egon Schiele that some were characterized as pornographic are appropriated by Lea Anderson for her dance The Featherstonehaughs Draw on the Sketch Books of Egon Schiele (1998). With her all-male company, she plays with and deconstructs his gender and desire representations, thus elaborating on discourses of feminist critique of her era. Arkadi Zaides’ solo Archive (2014) was created from violent materials filmed by Palestinian volunteers of Israeli settlers in the West Bank, for the Camera Distribution Project B’Tselem (the Israeli Information Centre for Human Rights). Zaides performs the movements and gestures of the Israelis and their reactions in a variety of situations, captured by the cameras. At the same time, he focuses the viewers’ attention on the movements, voices, and perspectives of the Palestinians behind the camera. In doing so, Zaides confronts and identifies with the archival materials, but when reviving it through his body, he raises questions dealing with his responsibility and participation in what is happening.