On a Dancing*

In this episode Thomas Bradley and Felix Sampson, create an experimental soundscape to accompany the reading of Thomas’ essay ON A DANCING*, first published on Delving into Dance on 27 November 2019. You can read the full essay here, with an extract provided below. The declaration is a precursor to the dancing, akin to preparation rather than a recipe. Ideas must be extradited from consciousness through speech or writing, like a clarification of behaviour, or practice of exorcism. And it is after these literary articulations that his liberation, and Good Dancing, will begin: post-declaration, and its attendant extrapolation. In this space, cliché postures may emerge, like archetypes of meaning and value, yet they remain personal somehow; the politics of the action must not be engaged as a communicative tool. N.B. It’s important the audience see me not knowing, so they know when I know, I don’t know. The distinction he is searching for is that between the personal and political. Though, perhaps there can be some value in flirting with politics just as he flirts with clarity. Generally, that should be encouraged, rather than the rampant fucking of art by ideology and ambition. Do you prefer clarity to nuance? Are clarity and dynamism mutually exclusive? N.B. In this context, clarity gains its whole value by the creative digression that frames it. As a measure of universality, clarity is vital in a dancing scene, where so often the desire to communicate something directly overrides the expression of the dancing experience. In this sense, clarity must be understood as a prelude to chaos. What about the becoming of clarity?