Abstract

This presentation explores how participation in dance can be understood as an ecological practice rather than merely a social or aesthetic one. Drawing on contemporary choreography, dance theory, and practice-based research, I examine how participatory forms of dance redistribute authorship, unsettle hierarchical relations, and generate new modes of collective creativity.

At the theoretical core of this talk is the concept of movement in malfunction (誤動), developed in my recent book Post-Choreography (Routledge, 2024). This concept reframes mistakes, failures, and unintended movements not as deficits, but as productive bodily “noise” through which choreography emerges relationally. Using Jérôme Bel’s Gala as a central case study, I analyze how participation operates through contingency, mis-movement, and the presence of diverse bodies—professional and amateur alike—within site-specific social ecologies.

Building on Félix Guattari’s theory of the Three Ecologies (environmental, social, and mental), I propose an “ecology of participation,” in which choreography functions as a weaving practice that connects bodies, environments, and modes of attention. I further introduce the notion of living archival practice, a method that documents and generates choreographic knowledge through ongoing encounters among humans, more-than-human agencies, and places. Here, scores, fieldwork, and collaborative installations operate as evolving archives rather than fixed records.

The presentation concludes by introducing my current EU-funded project, The Environmental Turn of Dance (ETD), based in Malta. This project investigates how dance can contribute to ecological awareness, community practices, and AI-assisted artistic creation through workshops, community gardens, and eco-somatic scores. Ultimately, the ecology of participation reframes dance as a practice of planetary attunement—learning how to move, live, and resonate together with heterogeneous human and non-human others.