The dancing body as living archive : preserving the Cecchetti method

Abstract

Dance is largely an intangible form of art and knowledge. The fleeting nature of its performance makes the circulation and archiving of this type of knowledge quite challenging. It is difficult to capture its essence in a mere text or photograph. The body, in this sense, might present itself as a fundamental form of dance knowledge preservation as it is able to embody knowledge in a way that material artefacts cannot. Despite many and continual changes that occur in the arts, the technique and traditions of classical ballet have therefore remained as dancers and teachers transfer this knowledge, through their bodies, from one generation to the next. The bodies of dancers and teachers, in this sense, become a dynamic archive of embodied knowledge. This involvement of the body in processes of knowledge acquisition, retention and transference manifests the agency of these bodies as they function both as object and subject, as instrument and agent, transgressing the boundaries between the material and immaterial worlds, the visible and invisible spaces of existence and experience, as well as the past and the present. This is the notion of the body which I use in my study; a dynamic entity, with boundary-crossing abilities, which holds great significance in knowledge transfer and preservation, hegemonic resistance, artistic expression, memory, transformation and evolution. The Cecchetti Method of classical ballet training and the Cecchetti Society, with its teachers and dancers actively participating in the learning, teaching and therefore preservation of the Method, epitomises how bodies become an archive. My study is more broadly involved in the larger academic enterprise that revisits and revises the institutional archive and questions our dependence on documentary and mnemonic practices.