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Dramaturgy Database

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This Dramaturgy Database reflects our ongoing research of dramaturgy at Utrecht University. The database consists of (full text) interviews with Dutch and Flemish dramaturges, essays and reports on dramaturgy seminars and other documents that show how (Dutch) dramaturgy has developed in the past decennia.

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A dramaturg at work (in orange boots).

Courtesy to dramaturgs Anna Wagner and Nele Beinborn (Kunstlerhaus Mousonturm), photo Gabriel Poblete

This picture perfectly captures the work of a dramaturg, which is strongly characterized by flexibility. As Bojana Kunst notes, ‘as a participant in the process, the dramaturg can occupy a variety of roles: those of practical dramaturg, producer, festival director, stage manager, writer, journalist, teacher, workshop leader, coach, lecturer, academic, artist, dancer, production network member, cultural politics advisor, mentor, friend, compass, memory, fellow traveller, mediator, psychologist. The complexity of the dramaturg’s profession – the affective ability to move between theoretical reflection and practical knowledge, to be an external eye and an involved participant at the same time – is often too hastily reduced to a sort of aesthetic elusiveness.’

Bojana Kunst, ‘The Economy of Proximity: Dramaturgical Work in Contemporary Dance.’ Performance Research 14.3 (September 2009): 81-88.

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We’re not ready for the dramaturge: some notes for dance dramaturgy

In this article André Lepecki addresses the question of what the dramaturge is supposed to know in the daily practice of dance dramaturgy. His question is: when dramaturgy is performed as a process, in the studio, alongside the unfolding choreographic and compositional process of creation, how can the dramaturge prepare his or her contributions to the work? What is exactly his or her position, or function? What exactly is being surveyed, looked for, analyzed, or retained by his or her activity? And what exactly is expected of the dramaturge by those who dance and choreograph before his or her scrutinizing presence? He does this by describing projects he executed with his dramaturgy students at NYU. While setting up connections for the students he often got the response, ‘we’re not ready for a dramaturge,’ in this article he questions why.

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