Playground: Gathering with Jonathon Burrows (rethinking choreography)

Jonathan Burrows shares some of his recent reflections on why people like to choreograph, and when choreography might be useful or not. The talk draws from his recent book Writing Dance (Varamo Press, 2022), and from his current research with the dramaturge and theorist Bojana Cvejić on the relationship between sequenced movement and human perception.

Jonathan Burrows danced for 13 years with the Royal Ballet in London, during which time he also began performing regularly with experimental choreographer Rosemary Butcher. He has since created an internationally acclaimed body of performance work including The Stop Quartet (1996) and Weak Dance Strong Questions (with Jan Ritsema, 2001), as well as his long series of collaborations with composer Matteo Fargion including Both Sitting Duet (2002), The Quiet Dance (2005), Speaking Dance (2006), Cheap Lecture (2009), The Cow Piece (2009), Body Not Fit For Purpose (2014) and Rewriting (2021). Burrows is a founder visiting member of faculty at P.A.R.T.S Belgium and has for many years been a regular collaborator for Jonzi D’s Back To The Lab hip hop theatre mentoring project at Breakin‘ Convention, Sadler’s Wells London. His second book ‚Writing Dance‘ is published by Varamo Press (2022), and he is currently Associate Professor at the Centre for Dance Research, Coventry University.