Table Of ContentMESEARCH AND
THE PERFORMING
BODY
Mark Edward
Mesearch and the Performing Body
Mark Edward
Mesearch and the
Performing Body
Mark Edward
Department of Performing Arts
Edge Hill University
Ormskirk, UK
ISBN 978-3-319-69997-4 ISBN 978-3-319-69998-1 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69998-1
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Dedicated to the memory of my lovely sister Denise, who enjoyed laughing,
dancing and talking (quite a lot) and Mylo for his loyal friendship.
A
cknowledgements
I would like to say thank you to Dr Fiona Bannon and Dr George
Rodosthenous for their supervision of my PhD entitled: Temporality of the
Performing Body: Movement, Memory, Mesearch, which has contributed
towards the writing of this book. I would also like to thank Professor
Simon Piasecki and Simon Lewandowski for their encouraging feedback
and positivity during my PhD viva. Equally, I offer my sincerest gratitude
to my editors Vicky Peters and Vicky Bates at Palgrave, to the production
team at Springer, and my indexer, Judith Lavender.
Being a collaborative artist and academic, there are many other people
to whom I need to offer in thanks in the realisation of the projects dis-
cussed in this book. I am most grateful to Peter Bennett, Chris D’ Bray,
Rosa Fong, Dr Mark Fremaux, Julia Griffin, Dr Karen Lauke, Olivia du
Monceau and Professor Helen Newall.
I am grateful to Mel Gibbons for providing photos of June Sands and
the photographers Shane Green, Olivia du Monceau, Professor Helen
Newall and Stuart Rayner for their kind permission of use throughout this
practice-led volume.
I would like to say thank you to both Edge Hill University for their
support in the research process and to the peer reviewers for their helpful
suggestions. I would also like to say thank you to my mother (Sylvia) and
my father (Joe), as well as my sisters (Val and Liz) for their love and
encouragement throughout my life. I am appreciative to all my current
and former students who have helped me to mature as an educator and
taught me the act of patience.
vii
viii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I am grateful to Naked Acts: Flesh and Queer Symposium (2017),
Manchester Drag Symposium (2017), Talking Bodies conference (2015),
TaPRA Performer Training Working Group (2014), IFTR Queer Futures
Working Group (2013), Sadler’s Wells Art of Age conference (2014),
Bank Street Art Gallery, Homotopia (2012) Festival and Making Sense of
Pain conference (2011) for allowing me to disseminate and discuss my
ongoing research.
I want to express gratitude to my civil partner, Dr Chris Greenough,
who has wiped away the many tears from my extremely tired eyes and
helped to keep me borderline sane through his sensitivity coupled with his
academic and emotionally intelligent feedback.
Finally, I want to say thank you to the many quirky and extraordinary
people who have found their way to me throughout life. This array of
people who have shared their cultures, wisdom, honesty, ideas, laughter,
tears and most of all their wonderful performing experiences.
c
ontents
1 From Stage to Page: Introducing Me 1
2 Declining Dancers 7
3 Mature Movers 21
4 Me/thodologies 33
5 Falling Apart at the Seams 45
6 Council House Movie Star 59
7 Dying Swans and Dragged Up Dames 75
8 Reflections on Mesearch 95
Bibliography 101
Index 107
ix
l f
ist of igures
Fig. 4.1 Diagram to demonstrate the relationship between
autoethnography, mesearch and performance 37
Image 5.1 Falling Apart at the Seams (Photo: Stuart Rayner) 48
Image 5.2 June Sands during her British Variety theatre acts
(Photographer unknown) 51
Image 5.3 Demonstrating weight transition floor work to dance
undergraduates (Photo: Helen Newall) 54
Image 6.1 Gale Force on a deprived shopping estate
(Photo: Olivia du Monceau) 67
Image 6.2 Gale Force on the film set for Council House Movie
Star (Photo: Shane Green) 68
Image 6.3 Gale Force on the film set for Council House Movie
Star (Photo: Shane Green) 70
Image 6.4 Dragging up as Gale Force in Council House Movie
Star (Photo: Shane Green) 72
Image 7.1 Exhibition photo of my re-enactment of Vaslav Nijinsky
(Photo: Helen Newall) 83
Image 7.2 Exhibition photo of my re-enactment of Moira Shearer
(Photo: Helen Newall) 84
Image 7.3 Exhibition photo of my re-enactment of Margo Fonteyn
(Photo: Helen Newall) 85
Image 7.4 Exhibition photo of my re-enactment of Rudolf Nureyev
(Photo: Helen Newall) 86
xi
xii LIST OF FIGURES
Image 7.5 Exhibition photo of my re-enactment of Martha Graham
(Photo: Helen Newall) 87
Image 7.6 Captured by accident while waiting in the studio to
commence research on Dying Swans and Dragged Up
Dames. This image was named ‘Blank Canvas’
(Photo: Helen Newall) 88
