Arrival rests on the idea that the dance's premise and content will be made manifest through the making, that I will arrive at where I want to go, at what I want to be doing with this dance by following the dance's lead. It rests on the belief that the ideas that are in me inform what I do and make, even as I am unaware of how that is operating. How what lies under my conscious decisions is leading those decisions. But also that working in such a way will add layers to those issues and that content, i.e., the dance will engender knowledge – that my dances are smarter than I am.

This quote from page 71 of Susan Rethorst's book is just one of many inspiring paragraphs. I just finished reading the book this week and keep going back to ideas I circled and underlined.

As a mid-career artist now completing an MFA, I have been actively seeking graduate level texts about dancemaking. If you also are seeking ideas, check out Susan's book. You can purchase it online through Contact Quarterly at: http://www.contactquarterly.com/contact-editions/index.php#book=a-choreographic-mind

A Choreographic Mind is a series of essays about Rethorst's process, some of her exercises and springboards as she teaches around the world, and an ounce of memoir as well. 

Susan Rethorst, left

While in graduate school, the texts I found to be most useful to explore during my own artmaking, though none were required reading in courses, included:

• A Choreographer's Handbook - Jonathan Burrows
• The Place of Dance: A Somatic Guide to Dancing and Dance Making - Andrea Olsen
• Hiking the Horizontal - Liz Lerman
• A Choreographic Mind - Susan Rethorst

If you have other titles to suggest, please leave a comment below.

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Related posts:

Writing Dancing: With Andrea Olsen

Artist Profile #119: Liz Lerman

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