Mesearch and the Performing Body

This book is an anthology of Mark Edward's creative practice-led projects. It transmits and communicates his research through varied artistic means, primarily contemporary dance, immersive art installation, drag performance, and photography. Through the innovative practice of 'mesearch', in which the author is both theoriser and theorised, this study delivers a personal, creative narration, combining reflections and emotions in relation to self and performance. Instead of being an attempt to undervalue or challenge the accepted notions of style within academic research, it promotes a freedom of expression which allows greater fluidity between the researcher, the performer, and the writer.

Mobilises the new concept of 'mesearch'? to describe the process of creative enquiry Explores the intersection between embodiment and performance work Offers three striking examples of creative research projects

Auteur

Mark Edward is a pracademic and Reader in Dance and Performance at Edge Hill University, UK. He is a pioneer of drag king and drag queen studies in higher education in the UK, authoring a drag module in 2015. He specialises in live art, choreography, dance theatre, contemporary dance and scholarly writings on queer theory, autoethnography, ageing (in)visibility in western dance, fluidity of identity and mental illness.

Résumé
"This well-written book traces and theorizes how through reflective artistic practice mature dance artists can develop the agency to distance themselves critically from modernist aesthetic ideals. ... Mesearch is accessible and of interest for scholars, students and practitioners of contemporary stage dance, especially those with particular interest in questions of ageing, queer subjectivities, and drag performance." (Susanne Martin, Dance Research, Vol. 37 (1), 2019)

Contenu

1. From Stage to Page: Introducing Me.- 2. Declining Dancers.- 3. Mature Movers.- 4. Mesearch.- 5. Falling Apart at the Seams.- 6. Council House Movie Star.- 7. Dying Swans and Dragged Up Dames.- 8. Reflections on Mesearch.