Anarchic dance / edited by Liz Aggiss and Billy Cowie with Ian Bramley.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Foreword -- Notes on Contributors -- Acknowledgements -- 1. Introduction: Navigating the Known -- 2. The Aesthetics of Smash and Grab -- 3. Writing Dance -- 4. Liz Aggiss and 'Authentick' Grotesque Expressionism -- 5. Choreographic Vocabulary -- 1. Visual Metaphor -- 6. Outsider Performance: A Raw Vision: Dance and Learning Difficulties -- 7. Deconstruction in (Die Orchidee) -- Mischievous Plays in the Spaces between Language and Meanings -- 8. Hilde Holger, Spirit and Maracas -- 9. Choreographic Vocabulary -- 2. Time and Rhythm -- 10. The Impossibility of the Review in the Mind of the Critic -- 11. Deconstructing Heidi -- 12. Choreographic Vocabulary -- 3. Space -- 13. Screen Divas: A Filmic Expression of the Grotesque Aesthetic -- 14. Reconstruction: Or Why you can Never Step into the Same River Twice -- 15. Anarchic Dance -- Afterword Work.

"Liz Aggiss and Billy Cowie, known collectively as Divas Dance Theatre, are renowned for their highly visual, interdisciplinary brand of dance performance that incorporates elements of theatre, film, opera, poetry and vaudevillian humor. They have created dance theatre, cabaret, live art, single and multiple screen dance installations, and live performance installations. Anarchic Dance is a visual and textual record of the work of Divas Dance Theatre. The DVD-Rom included in the package features extracts from Aggiss and Cowie's work, including the highly-acclaimed dance film Motion Control (first premiered on BBC2 in 2002), rare video footage of their punk-comic live performances as The Wild Wigglers and reconstruction of Aggiss' solo performance in Grotesque Dancer. These films are cross-referenced in the book, allowing readers to match performance and commentary as Aggiss and Cowie invite a broad range of writers to examine their live performance and dance screen practice through analysis, theory, discussion and personal response. As much as their practice is hybrid, maverick and hard to define, the various theories presented are equally challenging, lively and fresh. Extensively illustrated with black and white and color photographs, this beautiful multi-media package is a celebration of Divas' boundary-shattering performance work. Anarchic Dance provides a comprehensive investigation into Cowie and Aggiss' collaborative partnership and demonstrates a range of exciting approaches through which dance performance can be engaged critically."--Publisher.