A newer narrative: Unveiling the dancer´s authorship through auto-fictional writing practice

Discussions on authorship in dance often focus on legal ownership and copyright. These topics can carry negative connotations as they are linked to traditional ideas of the choreographer as a 'genius' who holds an all-encompassing authority over the artistic work. This perspective tends to overlook the collaborating dancers´role which along with their unique knowledge, creativity, and working realities remains publicly underexposed and undervalued. With this research I shed light on the dancer by exploring how they can take on the role of an author figure in the most literal sense. Developing a creative writing practice based on the literary genre of auto-fiction, I aim to offer an empowering tool for dancers to expose and reflect on their creative contributions and experienced hardships within current economies of artistic production. The resulting body of text will explore: Where lies the dancer´s unique authorship? Through the analyses of narrative techniques, style and themes of auto-fictional literature, self-interviews drawing from my experience as a professional dancer as well as movement-interviews with dance students and professionals, I will create a prototype of a handbook compiling auto-fictional writings, scores and reflections as a direct stimulus to recharge the dancer´s practice within and outside of the dance studio. The research will accumulate in a performative reading, presenting this handbook as a spatialized book through movement, spoken and written text.