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CHOREOGRAPHING ODDS AND ENDS AND BEGINNINGS: A DANCE ARTIST’S ARCHIVE Julie-Anne Long
What’s this? Hmmm, wouldn’t have a clue… looks like it’s been eaten by cockroaches… Last time I moved house I rummaged through an assortment of old cardboard boxes that had been sitting unattended in my backyard shed for seven years. I discarded the obviously mouldy papers and props and then stacked into new plastic storage boxes, piles of scrapbooks, dance ephemera and costumes deemed ‘in good condition’. I transported these odds and ends to the suburban garage of my new abode, where, predictably they have sat neglected for the past four years. I didn’t even know I had these things… I thought I’d lost them… Recently, I turned my attention to this/them - as they are my archive. Engagement with my archive has been a kind of bricolage: a DIY project improvised from the diverse ephemera that happen to be available. Some remains have landed inadvertently or been abandoned in boxes by accident. Some fragments have a more meaningful authority and at some time or other, for some reason or another, I have deliberately chosen to hang onto them. Although now, I can’t always remember why. It does matter to me that this flotsam and jetsam is not discarded without some consideration. So, I am preoccupied with questions such as: How do I decide what to keep? How do I decide what goes with what? Why do I still have this stuff? What does it matter to me and/or to others if I keep it or not?
