Abstract
This practice-based thesis, Choreographic Response to the Dance Biography of Nata Lerska, investigates how the movement vocabulary of Nata Lerska can serve as a stimulus for generating new contemporary dance. Rather than reconstructing historical performances, the research centres on creating new work through embodied discourse with traces - such as gestures, memories, and personal testimony - drawn from the biography of Nata Lerska, a pioneer of interwar liberated dance in Poland.The project treats Lerska’s embodied biography as a first step towards constructing an archive of Polish modern dance - an area largely absent from national historiography. It uncovers a selection of previously unknown documents, translated for this research from Polish, French, German, and Hebrew, which are presented throughout the text and in the appendix. Some documents were created specifically for the project, such as footage of Lerska’s movement signatures, interpreted as corporeal remains in line with Rebecca Schneider’s theory. These were captured in the re-documentary Nata Lerska – The Story of a Dancer, in which her body - understood as an archive (Lepecki) - becomes a vehicle for re-entering the present through her original movements. This discourse with the past, along with possible modes of contemporary re-enactment (Franko), leads toward the core of choreographic response, as defined by Betsy Fisher.
The digitalisation of Lerska’s embodied remains, and their selection through kinesthetic resonance, led to a critical reflection on dance genres. The identification of canons dances (Midgelow) -Ausdruckstanz and Flamenco - informed the practitioner’s dual role as both body and performer (Preston-Dunlop), and simultaneously as researcher and choreographer (Franko). In practice, my kinesthetic imagination functioned as a key method in engaging with the past and led to the development of the Motion System - a tool for generating choreographic material. This approach supported the creation of new dances, as documented in the video work Gesture for Gesture. Motion System in Motion Pictures. The culmination of this methodology is the introduction of a choreographic strategy called dismantled memory montage of dance, inspired by the visual philosophy of Didi-Huberman.
The complete portfolio of ten artistic outcomes includes a triptych of choreographic works - Vibrato, Ostinato, and Staccato. The telematic choreopoem Vibrato is rooted in Lerska’s Waving Palms and placed in dialogue with gesture study practices of German pioneers of modern dance. Ostinato, developed through fife iterations, shares its title with a Wigman exercise and draws on archival traces of Lerska’s Instant Steps. Staccato, a site-specific video work, responds to the earlier film Surprise, reflecting on detachment, friendship, and dismantled time. The pandemic revolution shaped my work through technogenetic concepts (Bleeker) and inspired my engagement in techno-choreography (Xu).
This PhD contributes to knowledge by introducing Nata Lerska’s legacy to a wider public; by defining choreographic response and establishing it as a strategic method for engaging with fragmented and undocumented dance histories; by evidencing Polish modern dance as a vibrant genre that was systematically erased under the communist regime of the Polish People’s Republic; and by aligning Polish taniec wyzwolony with German Freier Tanz and French danse libre.
| Date of Award | 5 Jan 2026 |
|---|---|
| Original language | English |
| Sponsors | Adam Mickiewicz Institute, Union of Polish Stage Artists, Ministry of Culture and National Heritage (Poland) & Polish National Recovery and Resilience Plan (KPO) |
| Supervisor | Monty Adkins (Main Supervisor) & Naomi Lefebvre-Sell (Co-Supervisor) |