Transmission and Translation of Choreographic Artworks

Project Summary

Transmission and Translation of Choreographic Artworks followed on from the Australia Research Council funded research project Precarious Movements: Choreography and the Museum (2021–2024), which was a project lead by the University of New South Wales that brought together artists, researchers and institutions into dialogue to develop good practice that supports the choreographer and the museum. Building on the momentum of that research project, members of the project team came together to further explore notions of transmission and translation of choreographic artworks, through a discreet conservation research project at Tate.

This follow-on project at Tate explored how choreographic artworks are transmitted and translated, and how these processes inform conservation strategies. It centred on three key themes: culture (of the work), transmission and translation.

Two choreographic artworks served as case studies: A Sun Dance by Rochelle Haley and WHEN I AM NOT THERE (WIANT) by Shelley Lasica. Both were co-commissioned through Precarious Movements and presented multiple times, offering rich opportunities to examine how choreographic works evolve across different venues.

The project’s dual approach – working with and observing Haley’s rehearsals alongside interviewing Lasica – enabled a nuanced investigation into how choreographic works are preserved, adapted and understood within institutional settings. It raised critical questions about how conservation can support the evolving nature of choreographic artworks.

Project Research Themes and Approaches

This project aimed to delve into the processes of transmission and translation for choreographic artworks and how these processes, in turn, continue to inform conservation practice. It aimed to consider and reflect on three key research themes – culture (of the Work), transmission, and translation. These terms for the purpose of this project were defined as:

Culture (of the Work)1 : What constitutes the choreographic work and what is required to generate it. The culture of the work could be considered as the key conditions or requirements that must be present for the work to be the work2 or as including the relationships that cultivate the work and maintain its integrity.

Transmission: The passing of information from one person to another. The initial passing of information is from a choreographer within the artist team, but subsequent transmissions may include to museum colleagues (curator, conservator or archivist, etc.) for the purpose of presentation and preservation.3

Translation: When a choreographic work is shown in a different space and/or location (or within the context of some other key variable) resulting in an adapted version of the work. Translation enables the work to be adapted into a range of different environments and situations.4

The project focused on two artworks which were co-commissioned as part of the Precarious Movements project as case studies; A Sun Dance by artist Rochelle Haley and WHEN I AM NOT THERE (WIANT) by artist Shelley Lasica. These two artworks either had been presented more than once or were proposed too, as part of the Precarious Movements project, and this allowed for a closer investigation of what it might mean to transmit or translate the artworks into different context, buildings and spaces. The end of the Precarious Movements project culminated with a new presentation of A Sun Dance at Tate St Ives on 21st September 2024 which drove some of the research questions and language behind the project. Simultaneously, this was seen as an opportunity to create a dialogue with Shelley Lasica’s work WIANT and investigate the same questions around, culture, transmission and translation of choreographic artworks.5

A Sun Dance, Rochelle Haley

A Sun Dance was created as a commission by artist Rochelle Haley. It was co-commissioned by Precarious Movements and the National Gallery of Australia in 2022-23 and was assisted by the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body. At the core of the work is a relationship between dancer, sunlight and architecture. Conceived in relation to the architecture of the original National Gallery building, shafts of sunlight streaming through architectural forms provide changing sets for dance over the course of a day. Durational in nature, audiences are invited to enter and exit the work at will. Three cycles marked by morning, midday and afternoon sun provide opportunities for audiences to orientate themselves within the structure of the work. The performance, developed over different seasons, draws influence from the feel of sun on skin; the temporal passage of sun to earth; the geometries of the architecture; the hum of the building; and architect Col Madigan’s observation of light ‘dancing’ through the gallery.

A Sun Dance was presented at National Gallery Australia on 24th February 2024, with a second presentation with Tate St Ives6 on 21st September 2024. For the Tate St Ives presentation a musician and a group of international and Southwest-based dancers came together to track the path of the sun as it passes across and through Tate St Ives, celebrating the transition from summer to autumn. This additional presentation offered a unique moment for collaboration across Tate Conservation with the St Ives Public Programmes team.

WHEN I AM NOT THERE, Shelley Lasica

WHEN I AM NOT THERE has been commissioned and produced to accompany a performance exhibition reflecting on forty years of Lasica’s choreographic practice. It was co-commissioned by Precarious Movements, Monash University Museum of Art, Melbourne, and the Art Gallery of New South Wales. WHEN I AM NOT THERE  is a performance – exhibition with choreography, costumes, paintings, sculpture, videos, texts and soundscapes that extend from her archive of past works. Performed by eight dancers, including Lasica, this dynamic new work sees choreography and objects in constant dialogue with each other. WHEN I AM NOT THERE  is the first Australian survey of its kind.

WHEN I AM NOT THERE had been presented as part of Precarious Movements project at both Monash University Museum of Art, Melbourne in August 2022, and the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney in May 2023. A third presentation in June 2024 was then agreed with the Perth Institute of Contemporary Art. This created the opportunity to reflect with artist Shelley Lasica on notions of transmission having shown her work at three venues across Australia.

The project took two approaches:

1. An artist interview with artist Shelley Lasica on 20th September 2024 to reflect on WHEN I AM NOT THERE and its presentation, transmission and translation across the three presentations as part of the Precarious Movement project.
2. To be present during the transmission moments, with the artist Rochelle Haley in the presentation of her work A Sun Dance to observe the rehearsals, full-dress rehearsal and presentation at Tate St Ives.

The research focused on:

1. How A Sun Dance performance manual functions to understand the culture (of the work) (or does it do this at all) and how does it transmit the work from the artist to the selected Southwest based dancers from the UK.
2. How the transmission via the manual differed from embodied transmission between dancers during rehearsals; how do the two modes of transmission worked together. How do we understand the difference between the ‘organic’ nature of relationships and body-to-body transmission does in contrast to (or in tandem with) with an ‘intentional’ performance manual?
3. What kind of translation happens when works are performed in a new space/context and how does the artist ensure the work retains its integrity as the work despite its translation? What must remain the same for this to happen? How far can adaptability extend before the work is no longer the work?

Key reflections and takeaways

1. Culture (of the work).

Maintaining or ensuring the culture (of the work), when showing works in different building, spaces and contexts is contingent on the existing relationships that come with the work (i.e. artist, choreographer, performers) alongside the newly cultivated relationships (i.e museum colleagues, new performers).

For A Sun Dance, a manual was developed, followed with the interaction of teaching on site, which led to development of a shared language which was important to the understanding and meaning of the work. The manual acted as one part of the work but there is something special that happens in the space between people who are focused on ensuring the work is materialised. The connections between people are there, but it’s the existing network that brings the pieces of the work together. With A Sun Dance, for example, the individual elements of the work were taught via the manual and learnt individually offsite. However, it was in the coming together of the ensemble of performers, through shared movement that brought the work together.

1. Transmission

Choreographic work keeps pushing the human dimension of artworks to the fore. Beyond lists of requirements or resources that need to be in place to support such artworks in a museum context, it is the relational that keeps surfacing as the most important aspect in creating the conditions for works to thrive. Transmission of knowledge and understanding takes place in an environment where trust has been developed and built. Like in every human relationship, for this to happen, it takes time for bonds to naturally flourish. It's critical to consider how to create time for people to get together in space, to move, find solutions as a group and to socialise.

Mechanisms for building trust are founded on working with existing social networks and finding ways in which those existing relationships could be brought into each presentation. This was critical with WHEN I AM NOT THERE, which relied on relationships built over many years.

When working with museums, the use of manuals and guidelines are helpful in transmitting knowledge around the production of the work, such as casting or rehearsal requirements. However, what is critical for any work is the time and space for performers to come together to share experiences and ultimately spend time moving together. The act of moving together allows people to bond and build trust. It is the intensity of the bonds created that enable the materialisation of works.

1. Translation or Calibration?

Across the project, a critical change was moving away from using the term translation and instead move to use the term ‘calibration’. This was a term that artist Haley used in the preparation and presentation of her work at Tate St Ives. Both Haley and Lasica then used calibration in a joint panel ‘Conservation and Choreography’ at Tate Britain on 30th September 2024, reflecting that translating an artwork from one space to the other does not allow for the playfulness and discovery that takes place in presenting an artwork in a new space. However, calibrating7 an artwork makes it possible to develop a different understanding of an artwork by engaging with its boundaries and discover new limits.

For Lasica this was obvious in the way she works with the ‘language of the space’ she is given when presenting the WIANT again, stating that 'the work doesn’t insert itself in space', but the process reveals more about the communication and the negotiations that exist between these two entities, the space and the artwork; it is about the tension between the known that makes the work and the unknown. The possibilities that arise from this tension make the work.8

For Haley this materialised with the ‘resonance of the space’ when presenting A Sun Dance. Again, communication and negotiation across those the presentation was critical to consider how the work would resonate and therefore calibrate into the spaces at Tate St Ives. In addition, play and playfulness in its forms and the way in which the work developed was critical. The need to create space for this, with a sense of trial and error was needed. Calibration allows for a porosity so works can find their ‘shape’ or ‘resonance’ within different buildings, spaces and context.

Final Remarks and Future Considerations

The reflections relating to calibration or translation are specific to A Sun Dance and WIANT and the nature of these works and the intrinsic artistic practices. What is critical is to consider in any context how to describe how an artwork is best ‘adapted’ to different contexts in a way that allows the work to continue to be the ‘work’. What is of primary importance to conservation practice is to engage in dialogue with artists to understand each artwork and thus informing the works preservation within a collection. The notion of calibration, brought in the context of this project, brings to the fore once again the human dimension for choreographic-based artworks, and how this can continue to inform conservation practice to adjust and shift processes that support the lives of works. Reflecting that the notions of culture (of works), transmission and calibration is very much in its infancy within the conservation practice at Tate and would benefit from further exploration and study.

How to cite: Louise Lawson, Ana Ribeiro, Caitrín Barrett-Donlon, ‘Transmission and Translation of Choreographic Artworks’ published as part of Transmission and Translation of Choreographic Artworks project at Tate.

Acknowledgements:

Rochelle Haley, Shelley Lasica, Melanie Stidolph, Imogen Frost, Susy Oram, Ivey Wawn, Angela Goh, Kyra Norman, Talia Sealey, Winona Guy, Alice Heyward, Megan Alice Clune, Leah Giblin, Louise Clarkson, David Huggins, Lizzie Thomson, Niki Verrall, Elspeth Pitt, Deidre Cannon and Saskia Scott, Rhiannon Newton, Ashleigh Veitch, Mitchell Christie, Alison Groves, Louise Curham,

Precarious Movements: Erin Brannigan, Lisa Catt, Rochelle Haley, Juanita Kelly-Mundine, Amita Kirpalani, Shelley Lasica, Louise Lawson, Hannah Mathews, Carolyn Murphy, Zoe Theodore and Pip Wallis.

Funder

British Council, Connections Through Culture grant programme, UNSW Art & Design

Find out more

https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-st-ives/beatriz-milhazes-maresias/a-sun-dance-performance

https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-britain/choreography-conservation-museum

https://nga.gov.au/stories-ideas/a-sun-dance-choreography-conservation-and-friendship/

https://www.unsw.edu.au/arts-design-architecture/our-schools/arts-media/our-research/our-projects/precarious-movements-choreography-museum

For any questions about the project page, please contact Lisa Stein, Digital Editor, Research.