SIDI LARBI CHERKAOUI: DRAMATURGY AND ENGAGED SPECTATORSHIP by Lise Uytterhoeven. 2019. London: Palgrave Macmillan. 271 pp., 16 illustrations. £64.99 hardcover. ISBN: 9783030278151. £44.99 paper. £34.99 e-book. ISBN: 9783030278168.

Abstract

more about the experiences and needs of their constituencies. As I read, I found myself substituting “dance artists” for “PhD students and adjuncts,” drawing parallels between the dance field and the conditions of academic life. Her discussion of dance artists’ willingness to selfexploit provoked reflection about my own experiences and motivations: Why exactly did I agree to write this (unpaid) review? Why have I been teaching as an adjunct for five years? In what ways do I neglect forms of collective struggle and cave to the gravitational pull of individualist careerism? Van Assche’s exploration of precarity can help us attune to the ways that selfexploitation and smarm show up within concert dance, academia, and our lives more broadly.