When I decided to attend the Lyon Dance Biennale in September 2024 at the start of a year’s sabbatical, I didn’t think I’d end up writing about the performances I saw. Ditto those I subsequently attended in Paris in early October. But something about the shows, and the cultural context in France through which I was viewing them, compelled a response—one that eventually grew into this very long review essay. However, when I pitched it to various performance studies journals for possible publication, I was asked to either radically shorten the piece or reframe it as an academic article. I wished to do neither, as I believe the present form best encapsulates my viewing experience and what I want to say about what I saw. So, rather than let the piece languish on my computer desktop, I have decided to post it to my personal website—if only as a document of an eventful three weeks of performance spectatorship.
Folks interested in reading what I wrote can access the essay here.
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