Flesh and Text : Devising Performance by Bodies in Flight

A critical analysis of UK performance company Bodies in Flight’s work and collaborative methodology, including archival images, text extracts, reflections by collaborators, arts professionals, performance scholars, providing a context for small-scale performance making and insights into devising methods and key questions.120 b&w, 14 col. illus.

Presents the history and an analysis of the experimental theater works produced by Bodies in Flight.

Based in Bristol and Nottingham, the performance group Bodies in Flight makes works where flesh utters and words move, challenging and re-energizing the relationship between audiences and performers as well as audiences and place.

Drawing on rigorous interdisciplinary and collaborative methods, they use words and images, movement and stillness, and voices and bodies to engage audiences emotionally and spiritually.

Intended as an inspiration to emerging artists, the volume covers key themes for any maker of contemporary performance: the relationship of choreography and spoken word; the use of new technologies and multimedia; the role of original music and soundscapes; the differences between work presented in a theater, gallery, or sited in non-theatrical places; and the persistence of theater as an art form in an increasingly digital culture.

This highly illustrated volume includes selections of scripts and archival material from thirty years of making devised theater and performance in the UK and internationally. It also features texts by collaborators, arts professionals, and scholars exploring the company’s collaborative working method, contextualizing it in the wider performance ecology and culture.