nondance

Nondance is a term used in performance studies and contemporary dance discourse to describe artistic practices that deliberately resist or redefine conventional dance. The label, a combination of non and dance, is used to analyze works in which movement is minimized, de-emphasized, or reframed as material other than choreography. It emerged in postmodern and conceptual performance contexts and has since appeared in scholarly writing, festival notes, and critic’s essays as a way to discuss boundaries between movement-based and other forms of artistic expression.

Definitions and scope vary, but nondance generally encompasses practices such as sustained stillness, minimal or repetitive movement, or the treatment of movement as document, score, or object rather than a vehicle for expressive dance. It may include performances where movement is generated by external systems (technologies, environments, or audience interaction) or where the presence of bodies is foregrounded as material rather than as performers executing traditional steps. Film, installation, and text-based works may also be described as nondance when movement functions as trace, index, or conceptual proposition.

Relation to dance and reception are debated. Some see nondance as a radical critique of choreographic hierarchies and the universality of dance language; others question whether such works belong to dance at all, or belong to performance art or minimalism instead. Critics often discuss questions of embodiment, temporality, accessibility, and authorship in nondance practices.

See also: conceptual art, performance art, minimalism, anti-dance.