Victoria Hunter - Site, Dance and Body: Movement, Materials and Corporeal Engagement

Cover illustration: Getty Images: Westend61

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I would like to thank a number of people who have offered encouragement and advice throughout the development of this project over a number of years. My thanks go to those colleagues and friends who have offered support when called upon or have simply asked how the project was going and caused me to reflect on the work, its ideas and its progress. In particular, I am grateful for the conversations and perspectives offered by Sita Popat, Gemma Harman, Daniella Perazzo Domm, Virginia Farman, Marisa Zannotti and Nikki Fairchild. I am particularly grateful to those colleagues who read draft chapters and provided critical and considered feedback; Ann Nugent, Joanne Butterworth, Melanie Kloetzel, Karen Barbour and Leslie Satin, your comments and advice have been invaluable.

Much of the thinking and the associated practice articulated throughout this book draws on my experience gained through participating in the COST European networking initiative How Matter Comes to Matter. My engagement with the working group New Materialisms: Embracing the Creative Arts fostered some rich conversations and provided space in which to work through ideas with a generous and supportive group of scholars and artists, my thanks go to Milla Tiainen, Katve Kaisa, Felicity Colman, Iris Van der Tuin, Helen Palmer, Anna Hickey Moody, Mirko Nicolic, Jessica Foley and Karolina Kucia.

This work is also enriched through references to the work of site dance artists and practitioners. I am grateful for their ongoing explorations and practical research in site dance and, in particular, would like to thank Katie Green, Rosemary Lee, Carolyn Deby, Nigel Stewart, Carol Brown, Julie Brixey Williams and Libby Worth for their work which has informed this research in direct and indirect ways.

This book would not have been possible without the generosity of a number of colleagues and artists in the UK and wider afield who have facilitated my own movement research practice by providing access to sites, dancers and facilities. Thanks for this support go to Ana Moya Pellitero in Barcelona, Laura Griffiths in Leeds, Nadra Assaf and the Sarab dancers in Lebanon, Jools Gilson in Cork, and Las Chicas in Raval. Thank you to the many dancers, production crews, designers and collaborators who have contributed to the development of my own practice-based research over the years, the reflective accounts of which feature throughout this book. I am grateful for the generosity and exploratory spirit of workshop participants in particular who have accompanied me on excursions across beaches, in woodlands and forests and trusted me as we have rolled across grass lawns, crawled on pavements and balanced on ledges.

Finally, a huge thank you to Scott, Molly, Finn and Otto for their patience and support and for accompanying me into the woods, up hills and inclines, around arterial routes, across wide open spaces and into the sea.