Productive misapprehensions – Artscross as a trans-cultural collaborative zone of contestation of performance practice

The collaborative dance project Artscross, organized by Rescen/Middlesex University, Queen Mary UL, Beijing Dance Academy and Taipei National University of the Arts, saw choreographers from the cities of Beijing, London and Taipei create work with dancers from and in each place in open rehearsals attended by academics.
In 2013 nine choreographies were created and performed at The Place Theatre in London to the theme of Leaving Home, Being Elsewhere. My paper relates to issues regarding thresholds or zones of encounter that emerged in the studios and performances, investigating how a merging of different lines of traditions can evolve performance practice.
Moving beyond a thinking in terms of an East/West binary, I question how these collaborative encounters I witnessed were productive in the sense of being transformative to each individual engaged, and formative to the works that have arisen as part of this process. I propose that the concept of what ‘dance’ or what a ‘dancer’ is has been renegotiated in this zone of encounter, which I understand as a zone of contestation and re-negotiation.
Drawing on research from the area of ‘translingual practice’ by Lydia Liu, Giorgio Agamben, as well as Umberto Eco’s work on Serendipities I stress the positive aspect of errors, miscomprehensions and false beliefs, and specifically their role in evolving practice.