TOWARDS DOCUMENTARY CHOREOGRAPHY

“Towards Documentary Choreography - Intermedial Approaches in Working with Extra-Aesthetic Materials” is the title of Arkadi Zaides’ PhD research project. Zaides is working within the CORPoREAL research group at the Royal Conservatoire Antwerp as well as at the University of Antwerp. The research will be conducted between 2021-2025 and will unfold through a series of workshops, lectures, publications, master classes, and performances focusing on the conceptualization of and the experimentation with the term ‘documentary choreography'. 

‘Documentary choreography’ integrates documents (interviews, testimonies, video materials, existing archival information, and others) in the choreographic work. It strives to weave these types of factual information with embodied practices in order to question social and political realities within which this type of work is produced. Moreover, it aims at transgressing the often-safe space of the artistic field and intervening through the process of creation and exposure of the artistic work in the actual political realm. By conceptualizing the term ‘documentary choreography’ Arkadi Zaides wishes to reflect on his own body of work in the last decade, as well as connect with peers and scholars who work along the same lines of practice and thought.