Performance-Based Data Analysis: a Dynamic Dialogue Between Ethnography and Performance-Making Processes

Abstract This article focuses on the processes of constructing an ethnographic performance. As a participant researcher, I investigated the working processes of a research group that I was part of as we constructed a performance ethnography in which we developed a dialogic and embodied method of analysing and exploring ethnographic data. The study demonstrated how a performance-based approach to data analysis, using devices such as improvisations, symbolic action and dramatic elements, enhanced the understanding, interpretation and representation of ethnographic data. This is discussed and illustrated in this article.