Thresholding: A Socially Engaged Performance Praxis Rooted in Care Ethics

Abstract

Thresholding: a socially engaged performance praxis rooted in care ethics is a creative and embodied research project into collective song, movement, touch, and embodied listening as practices for being with grief, personally and collectively. Thresholding is inspired by Threshold Singing, a contemporary practice of singing to the sick and dying, and engages with the partner-based movement form of contact improvisation to explore how song, touch, and proximity can create a culture of care in a socially engaged performance practice. The project draws from my personal experience as a Threshold Singer, a creative process with an intergenerational ensemble of singers and movement artists, and a performance of Thresholding, drawing a larger community into the promise of the practice. This research is rooted in the fields of embodiment and performance studies and engages with concepts drawn from Black Feminist theory, feminist care ethics, care aesthetics, and sound studies. The driving questions guiding this project include: How can the aesthetics and ethics of Threshold Singing be investigated through embodied research and adapted into a socially engaged performance practice? How does Thresholding as an emergent embodied methodology and performance praxis support a dedicated ensemble and audience to be with and care with one another in a performance focused on personal and collective grief?