The Choreography of Everyday Life
Annie-B Parson
(Author)
Description
A renowned choreographer explores the dance of everyday life and reveals that art-making is as natural as walking down the street In this sparkling, innovative, fully-illustrated work, world-renowned choreographer Annie-B Parson translates the components of dance--time, proximity, space, motion and tone--into text. As we follow Parson through her days--at home, reading, and on her walks down the street--and in and out of conversations on everything from Homer's Odyssey to feminist art to social protest, she helps us see how everyday movement creates the wider world. Dance, it turns out, is everything and everywhere. With the insight and verve of a soloist, Parson shows us how art-making is a part of our everyday lives and our political life as we move, together and apart, through space.Product Details
Price
$24.95
$23.20
Publisher
Verso
Publish Date
October 11, 2022
Pages
112
Dimensions
5.8 X 8.9 X 0.6 inches | 0.5 pounds
Language
English
Type
Hardcover
EAN/UPC
9781839766749
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About the Author
Annie-B Parson is an award-winning choreographer and co-founder of the OBIE and Bessie Award-winning Big Dance Theater. Ms. Parson has created choreography for opera, pop stars, television, theater, ballet, symphonies, objects, museums, augmented reality, and 1,000 amateur singers. Among many others, she has choreographed for David Byrne, St Vincent, David Bowie, Laurie Anderson, Esperanza Spaulding, and Mikhail Baryshnikov.
Reviews
"'Bodies in space.' I have heard Annie-B use this phrase dozens of times. It occurs to me this phrase refers to choreography and dance, but is also a transposable life philosophy."
--St. Vincent "I'm a long time fan of Annie-B's work. I see in it the quotidian made extraordinary ... the familiar made foreign."
--David Byrne "Parson's path is one that continues to push the boundaries of dance."
--Dan Meyer, Playbill "The choreographer who democratized dance."
--Financial Times "In this quiet, minute and understatedly virtuosic text, Annie-B Parson walks us through the intricate dances of pedestrianism and domesticity. Gently but firmly pressing back against linear heroic narratives that have tended to efface the practices of women artists, she braids together strands of beauty, resistance and reverie, slyly pulling her readers into an exquisite, inclusive choreography of living."
--Barbara Browning, author of The Gift "A gorgeous meditation on dance, visual art, and literature, as well as living, loving, and mourning. Parsons brings to the page the starling quality of her introspective, astounding, and lyrical stage work, urging us to look more closely at those small and large moments that steer us through the dance of life."
--Edwidge Danticat, author of Create Dangerously "This book parses the quotidian through the lenses of choreography (temporality, rhythm, spatiality, gesture, relationality, and so on). This is a book for people who are interested in life, in affect, in experience and in artistry as a fundamental part of daily life."
--Drawn & Quarterly "Traipsing from The Odyssey to Trisha Brown, Hilma af Klint to Anne Carson, Parson braids together ideas through words and illustrations as she touches on the connections between protest, ritual and spectacle, how the pandemic asked pedestrians to rechoreograph their relationship to other bodies in space, Zoom and Tik Tok as creative forms, and more."
--Courtnney Escoyne, Dance Magazine "This small but perfectly formed book gathers in the sacred and the profane, the virtual and visceral, poetical and political."
--Morning Star "Award-winning choreographer Annie-B Parson uses this slim but potent volume to show readers how the movements of day-to-day life function as choreography in the same way dancers on a stage execute choreography as a group. Reading this book made me look at the mundane activities of my everyday life with fresh eyes. If dance is everything and everywhere, as Parson asserts, then all our small movements add to something much bigger than any one individual. It's an interesting idea for our current moment, where connection seems more necessary than ever but increasingly rare."
--David Vogel, Buzzfeed "This small but perfectly formed book gathers in the sacred and profane, the virtual and visceral, poetical and political, the shared experience of pandemic lockdowns--which realised acute spatial awareness. [The Choreography of Everyday Life] is the work of a master craftswoman, beautiful and moving."
--Morning Star "Parson's insights are a welcome reminder of the political value of dance, which has long served as a powerful aid to protest, its expressive beauty lending eloquence to public demonstrations of outrage or sorrow."
--Charlie Tyson, Atlantic "Parson reframes banal encounters into beautiful, crystalline observations."
--Ava Wong Davies, Elephant "The Choreography of Everyday Life is many things: a pandemic diary, a discourse of Greek tragedy, and a tribute to Parson's many inspirations, from Trisha Brown to Hilma af Klint. Mostly though, it's a leisurely walk through a brilliant mind. This book weaves together personal and theoretical reflections with evocative images from famous works of art and Parson's own casual snapshots. The result will be oddly familiar to any follower of her company Big Dance Theater. It's a delightful clash of high art and low culture, sparklingly intelligent yet warmly conversational."
--Andy Boyd, New Books Network "A thoughtful addition to a dance library collection."
--Library Journal "Annie-B has choreographed for Davids (Bowie and Byrne), St. Vincent, Spike Lee, and Lorde, among others--giving movement to artists for whom movement is as essential to their work and melodies. Now, she's exploring how dance functions in everyday life, both in her own and on a societal level. In this illustrated work, Parson distills movement into text, exploring movement in feminist art to protests."
--Nylon
--St. Vincent "I'm a long time fan of Annie-B's work. I see in it the quotidian made extraordinary ... the familiar made foreign."
--David Byrne "Parson's path is one that continues to push the boundaries of dance."
--Dan Meyer, Playbill "The choreographer who democratized dance."
--Financial Times "In this quiet, minute and understatedly virtuosic text, Annie-B Parson walks us through the intricate dances of pedestrianism and domesticity. Gently but firmly pressing back against linear heroic narratives that have tended to efface the practices of women artists, she braids together strands of beauty, resistance and reverie, slyly pulling her readers into an exquisite, inclusive choreography of living."
--Barbara Browning, author of The Gift "A gorgeous meditation on dance, visual art, and literature, as well as living, loving, and mourning. Parsons brings to the page the starling quality of her introspective, astounding, and lyrical stage work, urging us to look more closely at those small and large moments that steer us through the dance of life."
--Edwidge Danticat, author of Create Dangerously "This book parses the quotidian through the lenses of choreography (temporality, rhythm, spatiality, gesture, relationality, and so on). This is a book for people who are interested in life, in affect, in experience and in artistry as a fundamental part of daily life."
--Drawn & Quarterly "Traipsing from The Odyssey to Trisha Brown, Hilma af Klint to Anne Carson, Parson braids together ideas through words and illustrations as she touches on the connections between protest, ritual and spectacle, how the pandemic asked pedestrians to rechoreograph their relationship to other bodies in space, Zoom and Tik Tok as creative forms, and more."
--Courtnney Escoyne, Dance Magazine "This small but perfectly formed book gathers in the sacred and the profane, the virtual and visceral, poetical and political."
--Morning Star "Award-winning choreographer Annie-B Parson uses this slim but potent volume to show readers how the movements of day-to-day life function as choreography in the same way dancers on a stage execute choreography as a group. Reading this book made me look at the mundane activities of my everyday life with fresh eyes. If dance is everything and everywhere, as Parson asserts, then all our small movements add to something much bigger than any one individual. It's an interesting idea for our current moment, where connection seems more necessary than ever but increasingly rare."
--David Vogel, Buzzfeed "This small but perfectly formed book gathers in the sacred and profane, the virtual and visceral, poetical and political, the shared experience of pandemic lockdowns--which realised acute spatial awareness. [The Choreography of Everyday Life] is the work of a master craftswoman, beautiful and moving."
--Morning Star "Parson's insights are a welcome reminder of the political value of dance, which has long served as a powerful aid to protest, its expressive beauty lending eloquence to public demonstrations of outrage or sorrow."
--Charlie Tyson, Atlantic "Parson reframes banal encounters into beautiful, crystalline observations."
--Ava Wong Davies, Elephant "The Choreography of Everyday Life is many things: a pandemic diary, a discourse of Greek tragedy, and a tribute to Parson's many inspirations, from Trisha Brown to Hilma af Klint. Mostly though, it's a leisurely walk through a brilliant mind. This book weaves together personal and theoretical reflections with evocative images from famous works of art and Parson's own casual snapshots. The result will be oddly familiar to any follower of her company Big Dance Theater. It's a delightful clash of high art and low culture, sparklingly intelligent yet warmly conversational."
--Andy Boyd, New Books Network "A thoughtful addition to a dance library collection."
--Library Journal "Annie-B has choreographed for Davids (Bowie and Byrne), St. Vincent, Spike Lee, and Lorde, among others--giving movement to artists for whom movement is as essential to their work and melodies. Now, she's exploring how dance functions in everyday life, both in her own and on a societal level. In this illustrated work, Parson distills movement into text, exploring movement in feminist art to protests."
--Nylon
