Abstract
Countermoves of the Transcultural: Curatorial & Choreographic Perspectives of Asian Australian Performance considers acts of collection, reclamation, and reconstruction in the creation and maintenance of Asian-Australian performance practices. By considering Asian-Australian performance lineages as their own artistic canon, the artist-researcher Takeuchi deconstructs the role of diasporic performance within Australia’s ostensibly anglicized documentation of its own art history. By answering the primary research question, how can performing bodies be sites of collection, reclamation and reconstruction? Takeuchi describes counter movements and critical dialogue that she initiated with a selection of Asian-Australian dance makers around Australia, examining their living archives and continued cultural responsibility as performers of the Asian diaspora who create works that traverse the familial and global. Takeuchi’s response to these interviews included a process of interrogating her own artistic practice through developing a body of work traversing video art, dance film and contemporary dance performance. Through Asian-Australian dance maker, artist-researcher-curator, and choreographer interviews, Countermoves of the Transcultural examines how performance traditions are intrinsic to understanding Australia’s relations with its neighbouring countries, and how these actions, in turn, encourage critical community dialogue and the re-examination of colonial histories. Offering a trans-historical window through which to re-ignite and sustain connections between Australian, Asian and Great Ocean countries and communities, the research reveals ties across times, places, and peoples, and discusses how these connections are shifting with the advent of new technologies and new methods of storytelling. Through acts of listening and ongoing conversations on what it means to be Asian-Australian, the research links past cultural archives to current Asian-Australian conversations. By creating new pathways to engage with ancestral histories, the project reveals what an archive has the capacity to become—an ever-evolving embodiment of intangible cultural heritage. After such a durational undertaking, whereby she engaged in reciprocal exchanges of time-sharing with early, mid-career and established Asian-Australian dance makers, Takeuchi wishes to explore the potential for this research to unfurl in many ways, including the possibility of elevating and uplifting Asian-Australian methodologies that are continually emerging and re-writing themselves within a so-called Australian context. Countermoves of the Transcultural comprises a 70% practice-led component and a 30% written component exegesis. Countermoves of the Transcultural is made up of a 70% practice-led component and 30% written component exegesis.
Reina Takeuchi, image by Jack Single. Courtesy the artist.
ACADEMIC PAPERS:
Bodies of Transmission | Master of Philosophy (Creative Practice) Thesis (2021), Queensland University of Technology
Countermoves of the Transcultural: Moving With & Against | ACUADS Conference Paper (2023)