Agent Provocateur

McKenzie, V. (2011). Agent Provocateur. <proximity> contact improvisation, new dance, movement improvisation 14(3), 4-7). Republished (2012) <proximity> contact improvisation, new dance, movement improvisation 15(1), 27-30.

This is the major textual work to document Felix Ruckert’s 2011 Australian visit in which he offered workshops for Xplore Festival (Sydney) and Strutdance (Perth). Ruckert is a Berlin-based dancer and choreographic artist whose work explores the edges of dance by demanding that audiences be complicit in risky performances. The article investigates Ruckert’s work as it relates to contact improvisation and questions of sexual overtones that trouble that performance form. The article advances research on emotion in dance by illustrating how Ruckert’s approach to contact improvisation enriches the emotional repertoire of dance artists via the abject categories of pain and discomfort.