Beckett's Dances

Abstract

Modern dance has been hugely influenced by the theatre, and to some extent prose, of Samuel Beckett. References to a ‘Beckettian aesthetic’ abound in dance criticism. However, critical examination of the relationship between Beckett and dance has thus far been fairly one-sided; the influence of dance on the work of Beckett is almost entirely unaccounted for. This article highlights how Beckett's plays provide unusually detailed verbal and pictographic instructions, which so meticulously prescribe the deportment and movement of the performers, that they appear to have been choreographed. Line is used in dance as a tool for notating movement and as a reflection of the linearity of the body; in Beckett, there is a clear interest in theline of limbs, and in the lines of movement. This interest in the linear is emphasized in a choreographic approach to writing that includes the use of line diagrams in the stage directions. This article interrogates the interest in highly specific movement that pervades Beckett's opus, and suggests how the plays might usefully be put in conversation with dance. The article suggests an approach to the plays that accounts for the influence of dance on Beckett's writing, and on how different types of dance and choreographic technique surface in Beckett. The article suggests how the reading, direction and performance of movement (or lack of) in Beckett's plays, might be better understood via a better understanding of dance and choreography.