Choreographing Immersion: Negotiating Borders, Difference, and Power

• Main Author: Stanton, Thea
• Format: text
• Published: Archīum Ateneo 2024
• Subjects: choreography; critical theory; immersion; Indigenous; intercorporeality; phenomenology
• Online Access: https://archium.ateneo.edu/kk/vol1/iss40/15; https://archium.ateneo.edu/context/kk/article/2025/viewcontent/KK_2040_2C_202023_2015_20Forum_20Kritika_20on_20Dancing_20Democracy_20in_20a_20Fractured_20World_20__20Stanton.pdf
• Institution: Ateneo De Manila University

“Immersive” performances have been growing exponentially over the past fifteen years, yet the definition of the form remains elusive. While a number of scholars such as Gareth White, Adam Alston, and Josephine Machon have collated what they perceive as the overarching characteristics of immersion, these analyses have primarily been concerned with the aesthetic features of immersive performances. Despite, or perhaps because of their popularity, some recent immersive performances have prompted sector-wide concern, voiced aptly by Lyn Gardner’s question in her article “Is Immersive Theatre Growing Up or Growing Too Big, Too Quickly?” This artist’s statement and case study will both demonstrate and explore how the development of an immersive experience, through a choreographic embodied practice, can respond to these concerns. Acknowledging the pioneering works of companies such as the Judson Church Group whose participatory performances were at the forefront of an agenda of egalitarianism, collaboration, and community (Kolb), I will outline my approaches to movement practices that embrace a decentralization of decision-making and nurture an inter-subjective awareness, with the aim of developing an immersive practice that embraces an ethic of respect and care. Drawing on my own Indigenous heritage and informed by Indigenous discourses (Welch; Kimmerer), as well as phenomenology (Ahmed), this provocation and artist’s statement will offer a reframing of immersion as a dynamic, fluid, and relational process. Using examples from my own practice, I will illustrate how a choreographic approach could be used to create an inclusive immersive form.