Time-Space: A Collaboration in Dance and Architecture

The paper explores the theoretical necessity and practical possibility of collaboration between dance and architecture, specifically from the perspective of the architect. Space and time are the common mediums in which both exercises operate and are therefore the basis for the collaboration. TIME: The dancer in space introduces the consideration of time-the movement of the body in space. This reveals a quality that traditional, static proportions and measures can never achieve. SPACE The dancer explores all the potential orientations and interactions between the two. This process of discovery in turn reveals certain experiential qualities of inhabiting a space that would otherwise remain unseen. The possible relationships between space and the body become part of the spatial experience whether or not they are employed. The body is pushed and pulled by the possibilities of its movement in space. Being able to see these possibilities through the dancer, the explorer of space-time, provides another important layer of understanding in the phenomenology of built space. These concepts are explored first from a theoretical perspective and then through the process of developing a collaborative performance between the School of Dance and the School of Architecture at the University of Arizona.