Public defence: Solveig Styve Holte

Choreographing an Archive of Relations: Singularities and the Shared Commons in Dance explores choreographic methods and processes for utilising archives in dance. How can choreography exist as a singularity, as an irreducible and distinctive object that renders visible historical dance archives, modalities of watching, and archives of tasks and situations? What if choreography is not about the invention of new material, but rather a process of composing, processing and making existing materials and relations visible? This research has developed along two axes. The first axis I identify is the intersubjectivity inherent in choreographic processes. More precisely, I investigate how to create a productive learning situation in my work where what we produce emerges between me, as a choreographer, and the performer or collaborator, and how the site, context, and situationserve as co-creative materials and have an agency of their own in the artist’s work. The second axis in my research, intertextuality, reflects my interest in existing materials, including found dance historical archives and forms of compositions, as well as modalities of watching, understanding, and approaching these as a Shared Commons.