Abstract
Installation art is a spatially orientated, material-based art form in which artists arrange and transform physical environments to shape how audiences perceive and experience space and time (Bishop, 2005). In recent decades, installation art has found increasing application in contemporary dance. Such works, often termed “dance installations” or “installation dance,” are referred to in this thesis as installation dance works, a term encompassing both the choreographic processes and performance outcomes that integrate installation art and dance. This type of work foregrounds materiality, spatial intimacy, and audience engagement, yet integration is not always seamless. In many cases, installations serve merely as scenic backdrops or functional props, producing multidisciplinary juxtaposition rather than interdisciplinary synthesis. Such limitations in practice are mirrored in existing scholarship, where attention often privileges performance aesthetics and audience reception (Carter & Nicholas, 2004; Rubidge, 2012) over the choreographic process and the dancers’ embodied perspective and experience in creating the work. In addressing this gap this thesis responds to both practical and theoretical shortcomings by reframing installation art not merely as a visual or spatial medium, but as a co-creative force in dance-making. This thesis therefore proposes somatic practice, a process-focused approach that emphasises body-mind unity and heightened bodily self-awareness, as a “glue” capable of fostering deeper, reciprocal integration between dance and installation. The central research question asks: How do somatic practices influence the choreographic process and the compositional principles of dance in relation to installation dance works? This question positions the dancer’s embodied perception as shaped by cultural and spatial contexts, with self-awareness emphasising the ability to notice and respond to internal sensations during creation.
The study adopts a comparative approach between Shanghai in China and Wellington and Dunedin in New Zealand, selected for their significance as national arts hubs and their cultural and artistic connections. Furthermore, the diverse scale and cultural context offer a valuable insight on how different artistic infrastructures and body philosophies shape choreographic practices. The methodology combines sensory and intuitive ethnography to gain participant’s perception on installation art and somatic practice. The fieldwork included four choreographic installation dance works, sixteen practice-led workshops that incorporated somatic approaches, and eight in- depth interviews with professional choreographers.
Findings show that somatic practice operates not merely as a tool for dancer awareness, but as a compositional foundation that redefines the relationship between body, space, and material, enabling an integrated dialogue between dance and installation art. One finding highlights somatic practice as part of a cyclical cultural flow. It begins with Eastern philosophies of body–mind unity and is later reframed in the West through scientific approaches such as anatomy and psychology. This knowledge then returns to China, where it is reinterpreted through local body philosophies and expressed in dance principles such as yin–yang balance, metaphorical embodiment, and the cultivation of qi (vital energy or life force). These cultural flows enrich choreographic strategies, enabling dancers to draw on both Eastern and Western embodied practices in installation dance works. From this combined perspective emerged a new choreographic model that embraces monism philosophy, centres the dancer’s sensory engagement, challenges hierarchical authorship structures, and conceptualises installation art as a “third participant” in creation. This model extends choreographic theory and provides a comparative framework for future interdisciplinary and cross-cultural dance practices.