This bridge we call communication: Anzaldúan approaches to theory, method, and praxis

Abstract

and cons. On the one hand, it allows each chapter to stand on its own; on the other, it raises questions about the utility of the collection for use in classes or for general academic readers. Similarly, I am not convinced of its applicability to the average performance studies reader, as the text’s contributions to the field are more peripheral than central. The chapters read like wonderful case studies to help illuminate our thinking about performance and place, performance in the Anthropocene, and eco-critical approaches to performance and theory. These topics are central to some but not all performance scholars, and the collection makes only tentative gestures toward building new performance theory. Performing Ice thus contributes to a conversation within performance studies by broadening the scope of that conversation rather than opening a new one. Those working within posthuman approaches to performance studies or those who have a vested interest in artistic research in, of, and through polar landscapes will certainly find a great deal on offer through this collection. For more general audiences, it might be of more interest to read certain chapters. I could imagine Performing Ice as a useful teaching tool at the graduate level or for topic-specific courses. On the whole, however, the text is not necessarily aimed at serving students, nor at reimagining performance studies. It is, instead, a capable survey of some of the many relations between ice, performance, humans, and more-than-human others. For those interested in performance and place, posthuman performance, and/or the culture(s) of icescapes, it is an invigorating and perhaps even catalytic volume. One thing is certain: this reader will never look upon ice – whether the photographed icescapes of the polar regions or that which accumulates on the shores of Atlantic Canada – without also wondering what performances might be mixed within its shifting reflections. And that, I think, suggests the editors have achieved their goal.