Subverting Precariousness: Work, History, and Aesthetics in Contemporary Dance in Buenos Aires

VALLEJOS, JUAN IGNACIO

Dance Research Journal

Cambridge University Press

Lugar: Cambridge; Año: 2019 vol. 1 p. 32 - 46

0149-7677

The lives of contemporary dancers and choreographers in Argentina are currently marked by the undeniable circumstances of precariousness. This condition is not just limited to modes of production characteristic of the contemporary dance scene, nor to the fairly low esteem in which artistic work is held by most of Argentinian society. Precariousness is actually a constitutive element of Argentinian contemporary dance from a historical and aesthetic point of view. It is the expression of an unfinished process of cultural modernization following European and American colonialist models. However, even if precariousness represents a constraint for artistic practice, it can also be subverted in and by artistic practice. This article explores precariousness through the analysis of three artistic interventions by members of the contemporary dance community in Buenos Aires. It explores the participation of dancers in political groups, which petition the state for an improvement of the working conditions of nonofficial dance artists. It examines how Marina Sarmiento?s artistic research related to dance history stages a precarious body as an archive that deals with aesthetic colonialism. And lastly, it discusses the emergence of an aesthetics of precariousness in Fabian Gandini?s work, which exposes precarious modes of production in dance and brings to the fore the importance of artistic ethics. These case studies touch upon issues of working conditions, history, and aesthetics. By way of this somewhat eclectic approach, I would like to stress that these three aspects of dance practice operate simultaneously and determine the way contemporary dance practice is conceived in the Argentinian context.