Simon Ellis

Collaboration, Violence and Difference

We are Colin Poole (UK) and Simon Ellis (NZ) — two dance artists who collaborate as Colin, Simon & I. In this chapter we reflect on the nature of collaboration using Slavoj Žižek’s thinking about distortion and violence featured in The Parallax View2 and Violence: Six Sideways Reflections.3 Without Žižek’s permission — indeed, by pulling his ideas from the contexts in which they were written (isn’t that what we do in performance studies?) — we massage his words and ideas to harness our curiosity and ask questions about how we make and perform choreographies. The writing reflects our artistic experience — particularly with respect to the development and presentation of our performance project Because We Care4 — in building, maintaining, and challenging collaborative relationships. Whereas collaboration is conventionally thought to demand care, patience, and harmony, we propose that it prospers under conditions that welcome antagonism, difference, friction, and even violence.