An Autoethnography of Choreographing the Dance Performance “Vintage”

This paper is an autoethnography describing my process of choreographing a dance performance called Vintage, in which my collaborators and I explored the idea of reusing dances we shared. To support our learning of the dances, I used a web application that allowed me to record them as annotated audiovisual clips. I documented my design and choreographic processes through scoring and journaling, and performed an auto-explicitation interview. I wove these elements together to write an autoethnography that narrates my experience of choreographing Vintage and of using the web application that supported it. My autoethnography offers first-person insights into how choreography is intimate, relational, situated, and emergent. It also illustrates the value of designing technology in the background of the creative process. Overall, the paper illustrates how qualitative research can provide a rich, layered understanding of choreography and dance technology design.