THE MONEY ISSUE

Fiona Winning and Anitra Nelson in conversation with Angela Conquet

The Money Issue

In a money-driven world, the performing arts are equally subjected to market rules – specifically those of commodification and consumerism – like any other field of practice. And yet, with no tangible object to trade except the experiential moment of the now, should the embodied performative event be a commodity traded like any other? And should it be so, what and who funds performing arts today? What forces enter into its commodity form? What monetary value is placed on the labour of those who produce performance? How does money – public, corporate or philanthropic – affect, prescribe or determine the content of the performative arts, the forms of thinking they embody, their modes of production, the artist’s status in a society, the economies of values and the value of value itself? And where does performance sit on the sliding scale of compliance and resistance?Using the Dancehouse Diary issue on this topic as a starting point, this conversation invited dance curator Fiona Winning and degrowth specialist Anitra Nelson to tackle some of these interrogations in dialogue with Dancehouse’s Artistic Director and co-editor of Dancehouse Diary, Angela Conquet.

This conversation was part of the Dancehouse KCA Public Program 2016, hosted by Victoria College of the Arts.