Claire Vionnet is an anthropologist, dance researcher and dancer.

From his doctoral thesis (University of Lausanne, 2018), his bookThe Shadow of the Gesture, The Meaning(s) of Experience in Contemporary Dance (Georg Editeur, 2022) contributes to the theories of the body and the senses, to the anthropology of dance andembodiment, as well as the semiotics of movement. Investigating choreographic creation from an anthropological perspective, she explores the notions of improvisation, shadow, gesture and production process, articulating auto-ethnography and phenomenology.

 

In her postdoctoral research, she explores the concept of intimacy in/through dance, based on studio movement workshops. A comparative ethnography in Montreal, Paris and Dakar led him to investigate the cultural variety of intimate experiences, enlightened by the issues of political and social crises.#MeToo and Covid-19 (Routledge 2024). Her previous publications focus on artistic identities (2015), the collaboration between art and anthropology (2016), the interpretation of performances (2017), affects (2018), dancing vulnerability (2019), choreographic rituals (2020) , movement (2021/2023), touch (2021), autoethnography and collaborative anthropology (2021/2022), mechanisms of exclusion (2021), nudity (2022), ethnographic reporting ( 2023).

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As a dancer, she works creatively and engaged with different artistic communities (West African dances, contemporary dance, contact improvisation), reflecting on how dance can generate knowledge, and reach an audience. expanded.

 

Her research on choreographic processes, sensoriality, intersubjectivity and the meaning of gesture, as well as her reflections on the phenomena of attention and perception in dance are all questions shared with the “fabulous techniques” project. His use of auto-ethnographic and creative methods combine with the project's objectives to articulate practical experimentation and theory. Having had the opportunity to discover the work of Erin Manning during a research trip (Montreal 2019), her work on the phenomenon of intimacy in dance, including the use of spirituality, will dialogue with the dimension " fabulous” of the project.

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As a dancer, her insertion in the Swiss and international choreographic field will contribute to the networking of the project. Its affiliation to the only Swiss academic research center for dance research at the University of Bern will allow visibility of the project at the level of Swiss universities, particularly German-speaking ones. Finally, his desire to create bridges of dialogue between various fields of research (anthropology, dance studies, contemporary philosophy) and creative methodologies (research-action) joins the interdisciplinarity of the project.