Performing Collaboration in Solo Performance: A Duet Without You and Practice as Research

This book investigates performance practice and practice-as-research methodology on the issues of authorship and collaborative labor in a world characterized by fragmentation, displacement, and virtual relationships. It addresses the following questions: What is a collaborative body? How can one sole performer enact and convey a collaborative practice? How can one body on stage carry out several voices at once? How can one maintain a sense of community while being alone in a room?

Performing Collaboration in Solo Performance presents the full-length definitive version of the performance score from Chloé Déchery’s original performance piece entitled A Duet Without You, created between 2013 and 2015 in collaboration with a range of high-profile artists including Karen Christopher, Michael Pinchbeck, Deborah Pearson, Simone Kenyon, and Pedro Ins. A collection of essays by preeminent writers, artists, and academics in the field complement the original performance scores, ranging from performative responses to in-depth theoretical essays. Bridging practical experiment and theoretical examination, this innovative interdisciplinary volume will appeal to anyone working in between artistic practices and scholarly research. 

Chloé Déchery is a lecturer in theater and performance studies at the University of Paris 8 in Saint-Denis, France. Her research interests include everyday corporeality and embodiment in contemporary performance, experimental theater, and choreography in Europe.