While humour is more and more becoming an object of interest for anthropologists (Swinkels, de Koning 2016), as well as for ethnomusicologists (Guillebaud, Stoichita 2013; Sutton 1997), less has been done by anthropologists of dance and ethnochoreologists, may it be participatory or presentational dance. However, focusing on what humour in/to dance as an embodied practice calls upon, on the where, when, what, and how, can be a precious tool to reach out a better understanding of a dance genre, a community of dance practitioners and the general political, social and cultural context in which it is embedded. The work of M. Bakhtin (1984) has laid important basis on the (folk) culture of laughter and especially on the “grotesque image of the body” as its essence. Humour, as a communicative act or beyond, can therefore be approached as a form of “engaged knowing” (Göpfert 2024). Humoristic effects often requiring that both dancers and audience have the necessary (shared) knowledge and references, its study might offer valuable insights into a specific dance genre and its world and ecosystem.
Whilst research on humour is primarily interested in its verbal dimension, a study through non-verbal medium such as dance and music can permit the scholar to free oneself from such a limiting perspective (Houseman 2013). How can humour, laughter, joke, tricks, comedy, play, mischief, wit and so on take place outside of language? What are the principal humoristic processes and comic regimes anchoring themselves into the body in movement? How can dance as an embodied experience of humour play with, and upon, senses and affects (Carbonnel 2018). Dancing humour is a complex and multi-layered process which calls upon a detailed and precise study of each layer, their entanglements as well as their discrepancies.
Exploring the complicated relationship between play, ridiculousness, and seriousness, J. Huizinga argues that dance can be characterized as pure play (1980: 164-165). Yet, although humour is not necessary based on play, nor playing always implies humour, both are taking place within a framework of action different from the everyday life (Hamayon 2016) while addressing elements from it. Playing with rules, norms, or rigidity of behaviours can prompt laughter, hence permitting challenges to the established order as much as reinforcing them. Furthermore, various forms of competition can take place during, if not structure, specific dance practices or dance genres, articulating play, game, and individual or collective power relations (Steil 2021). Playing with dance implies playing with something but also with (the complicity of) someone (Giurchescu 2001) and often, about something. The interlocutors, as well as their ways of responding to humour and play, can be numerous: other dancers, musicians, audience, non-humans, and so on.
Playing and humouring through dance can simply be “for the sake of a good laugh” and corporeal enjoyment, yet it often permits participants to address serious or even unpleasant issues. Humour and play in dance question conventions, limits, and ethics of a particular culture, and have a specific ability, especially humour, to make comments, unmask or expose hidden things, provoke the powerholders. Confronting, criticizing, provoking, challenging or overtaking can take place within dance through the display, exaggeration, or amplification of incongruity, if not “dissonance” (Göpfert 2024) that the dancer(s) intend to address.
However, humour in dance does not only aim at provoking or differentiating, it can also become a means of action to discover new experiences and/or integrate other actors. Calling upon creativity and social interactions, play can likewise be a means to explore the dance, its possibilities as well as its limits.
Last but not least, humour and play as methods can also become heuristic tools for the researcher (Zhan, Xu 2024; Swinkels, de Koning 2016; Walton 1993; NoJoke Project 2023-2027).
Playing or joking with dance, or during a dance piece or an entire dance event, can take place within a large spectrum of context and modalities of actions which this symposium intends to explore further. Communications are expected to be based on ethnographic fieldwork and data, yet to go beyond descriptions in order to stimulate collective discussions among the participants of this symposium.
Topics addressed may include, but are not limited to:
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Multi-scalar analysis of humour / play in dance. At which “level” can humour /play be used in dance: few bars in a dance piece, an entire dance piece, a dance event, a dance genre, etc.
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What are the forms, processes, and regimes of humour and play in dance? Imitation, parody, comedy, satire, brief wink or allusion, quotation, double meaning, incongruity, ambiguity, exaggeration, competition, game, self- deprecation, grotesque, irony, hyperbolization, travesty, diminution, strangeness, distortion, absurdity, farce, clownery, and so on.
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Which dimensions of dance are used to convey humour and/or with which one can play: movement itself, rhythm, body, interactions, affects, senses, gaze, structure, music, costumes, props, rendering and rendition of characters, etc.
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Humour / play in dance as means of social action. Confrontation, defiance, exclusion, transgression, oppression, critique, transformation, inclusion, valorisation, recognition, unification. Humour / play in dance as a means of resistance, anti-systemic agency, giving voice to the marginalized.
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How are humour / play connected to affects, feelings and the senses: of the dancers, of the musicians, of the audience? Of which kind? Pleasure, joy, frustration, anger, sadness, surprise, nostalgy, etc.
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Degrees of spontaneity of humour / play. Completely unplanned, improvised or based on a planned script, totally expected, etc. and by whom? Other dancers, musicians, audience, outsiders of the dance tradition (tourists, etc.). Can humour in dance be unconscious? Unexpected by the dancer her.himself?
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Social and cultural competences to create / understand humour and play in dance. With whom can one play or laugh in dance? With whom one cannot? Which are the categories of participants able / allowed / expected / forbidden to bring humour into dance (genre, age, status, occupation, role, level of expertise, etc.)? What does one need to possess to be able to bring humour into dance / to play with dance? Expertise in the dance genre, specific personality, practice of other dance genres, other performing art, etc.
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Space and/or time and/or contexts for humour/play in dance: Where, When and How can one play with dance? With whom? Playing with dance / Playing during a dance piece, a dance event.
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Dance, humour, play and knowledge / knowledge production. Shared references. Themes and references called upon: norms, power, politics, kinship, relationships, everyday life events, sport, etc., but also other dance genre. What is the trans-cultural potential of humour in dance (between different dance genres, countries, social or cultural groups, etc.)?
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What are practitioners’ discourses on humour / play in dance (if any). To whom is humour / play in dance addressed? What interactions exist between producers and recipients in relation to shared object of ridiculing? How is humourous dance received? What are the reactions of the other participants, the audience, the organisers? Is the audience expecting humour / play to be part of this dance/event?
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Limits, Risks, Failure, Success. Are there limits to humour / play? What is the nature of such limits? What happens if one exceeds these limits? Do humour / play attempts always reach their aim? Are there failures? According to whom? In which way? Can a failure be transformed into a success? How? How do humour in dance / playing with dance imply taking a risk (financial, political, artistic, etc.)? In which ways can experiments or explorations through humour / play in dance be conducted?
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Humour / Play and the researcher. The researcher as a target for humour / play. The researcher as a partner for humour / play. Dance as a methodological tool for the researcher.
