Exquisite Corpse is a piece for 7 dancers constructed from dance material made by 58 choreographers using the «Cadavre Exquis» or «Exquisite Corpse» process.

Also known as an Exquisite Cadaver or Rotating Corpse, the Exquisite Corpse is a method by which a collection of words or images is collectively assembled, the result being known as an Exquisite Corpse or cadavre exquis in French. Each collaborator adds to a composition in sequence, either by following a rule (e.g. «The adjective noun adverb verb the adjective noun.») or by having access to an exerpt from the previous contribution.

The idea was originally developed by a group of artists and writers including Jacques Prevert, Yves Tanguy, and Andre Breton. The first sentence written using this process was Le cadavre - exquis - boira - le vin  - nouveau : The exquisite – corpse – will – drink – the new - wine. Hence the name le cadavre exquis or exquisite corpse. Since its development, the process has manifested itself across a  range of different artistic disciplines, commencing with poets and writers, but moving into the visual arts through artists such as Man Ray, Joan Miro and Salvador Dali. There have been a number of large scale multi-media and trans-disciplinary Cadavre Exquis performances, some of which are on-going. More recently, the internet, with its rhizomic multiplicity, heterogeneity and connectivity has provided a fertile ground for exploration of the Cadavre Exquis process, especially in fields such as digital arts.

The Exquisite Corpse process is one that further develops two of the central ideas which Joanne Leighton has been exploring in previous works: firstly, the use of pre-existant and non-original material as the basis for new choreographic work, and secondly, questions regarding authorship, originality, and the ownership and transfer of intellectual and cultural property.

Based in Paris Ile-de-France, Joanne  Leighton is a Belgian-Australian choreographer and pedagogue. Her  professional career is linked to an original, dynamic and constantly  evolving vision of dance and her discourse is permeated by an emphasis  on dialogue and exchange, both with the public and with her artistic  collaborators. Central to her work lies the notion of site, territory  and identity, which are for Joanne Leighton interdependent spaces.

Joanne Leighton is the representative choreographer of the  administrative council of the SACD (French Society of Composers and  Dramatic Authors) and the Beaumarchais 2018 – 2020. She is also a member  of the administrative council of La Maison du Geste et de l'Image in  Paris. 

After dancing in the Australian Dance Theater (1986-1991), Joanne  Leighton moved to Europe, living and performing in London for 2 years.  Her company Velvet was formed in Brussels from 1993 - 2010, where she  established her choreographic work, active for over 18 years. She was  choreographer in residence at the Raffinery - Charleroi/Danses  (2003-2005) and Les Halles de Schaerbeek (2005-2007). In 1994 and in  2010 she received the SACD Prize (Society of Composers and Dramatic  Authors) for her choreographic work. Joanne Leighton has been  commissioned to create work for international companies such as the  Dance Theater of Ireland (2001); in Belgium for Charleroi Danses (2005);  in France for the Ballet de Lorraine (2014) and in Switzerland for the  company Marchepied (2015).

Director of the National Choreographic Center of Franche-Comté in  Belfort in France (2010 – 2015), Joanne Leighton formed WLDN in 2015.  WLDN is a project, philosophy and platform for her choreographic  research and creation. Her works have been performed nationally and  internationally in theaters, urban and industrial spaces, art galleries,  town squares, on rooftops and presented on screens and smartphones.  Joanne Leighton's choreographic work has been co-produced and presented  on international stages for over 20 years, with over 30 productions  touring to France, Germany, Belgium, Denmark, Spain, Ireland, Italy,  Latvia, Lithuania, Morocco, Netherlands, Wales, the United Kingdom,  Australia and Cuba.

Joanne Leighton’s choreographic work includes Corps Exquis (2019) a piece for 3 dancers around an exquisite corpse for 58 choreographers; I am sitting in a room,  a movement study of the sitting position performed by four poetic  clowns on the eponymous text by American composer Alvin Lucier; Exquisite Corpse (2012) an exquisite corpse for 7 dancers ; Made in…Series,  a large scale ‘architecture in movement’ for 99 participants performed  in situ and (re)created in France, Denmark, Germany, Australia,  Switzerland, Cuba; The Modulables, a series of site-specific pieces  between installation and performance with an ambulatory public, which  have been evolving over a period of 10 years. In 2014, Joanne Leighton  and the director Christoph Frick co-sign Melting Pot for 9 young  performers from immigrant backgrounds, a cultural exchange between the  Theater Freiburg, the CCN of Belfort and Junges Theater Basel. Chair Dances,  an evolutive virtual digital gallery comprising over 30 short  choreographic films by diverse choreographers involving chairs, was  initiated by Joanne Leighton in 2010.

In 2015 Joanne Leighton initiated a trilogy of works which will span 5 years with her signature piece 9000 Steps, performed by six dancers on a bed of salt to the music Drumming, Steve Reich. This work was followed in 2018 with Songlines, for eight dancers, created to the fascinating musical composition In C by Terry Riley. This trilogy will conclude with her production People United in 2021.

In September 2011, Joanne Leighton launched her large scale work, The Vigil,  whereby each morning and evening at sunrise and sunset over 365 days, a  participant holds watch over the city for one hour, a work for 730  inhabitants and performed over 365 consecutive days. Around these same  principals this choreography has been mounted for the towns Belfort  (September 2011 – September 2012) ; Laval (15th September 2012 – 15th  September 2013) ; Rennes (30th September 2012 – 29th September 2013)  Haguenau (1st January – 31st December 2015), Freiburg, Germany (20th  June 2015 – 19th June 2016) and Evreux, France for the Le Tangram, Scène  Nationale (22nd September 2017 – 22nd September 2018) ;  Dordrecht, for  the Schouwburg Kunstmin in Holland (1st Mai 2019 – 30th April 2020) ,  and eigth project, The Graz Vigil Austria (1st January 2020 -  31st December 2020) for La Strada, is currently in performance. The  Münich Vigil - Türmer München, is due to start shortly (12th December  12th 2020 - 12th December 2021) ; along with The Hull Vigil (20th March  2021 - 19th March 2022) for the Freedom Festival of Hull in the United  Kingdom.

In parallel to this work, Joanne Leighton initiated a series of  walking pieces as with Walk#1 Belfort – Freiburg, where she walked a  path between two Vigil sites by following waterways over 127 kms in four  days. Since 2014 these ‘walking dances’ are part of her choreographic  practice. In September 2017, Joanne Leighton mounted Walk, a performance  over 25 km linking the four theaters of Paris Réseau Danse, with an  open call for participants to join her. Her work Salt Circle concluded this unique event at Atelier de Paris/CDCN. Her walking projects such as Walking as Remembering (2019) weave into her choreographic practice and stage work.

An internationally recognized pedagogue, Joanne Leighton regularly  gives lectures and workshops. She has taught for companies such as  Jean-Claude Gallotta, Catherine Diverrès, Angelin Preljocaj, Trisha  Brown Company, Batsheva Company, Charleroi / Danses, AMNT in Tokyo, Need  Company, Rosas, Wim Vandekeybus, and dance centers like the Seoul  International Choreographic Center (South Korea); The Menagerie de  Verre, Paris; Centre National Danse in Paris; Atelier de Paris / CDCN;  PARTS; Dansens House in Copenhagen; and the Croatian Institute for  Movement and Dance / Zagreb Dance Center. She has also taught in art  schools such as the fine arts school in Toulouse.

Interested in finding new ways of being, doing, thinking, working,  making and presenting, Joanne Leighton seeks to embrace a radically  different approach to access, ownership, and authorship in contemporary  dance performance.

For Exquisite Corpse, each of the 58 choreographers were given access to the last few seconds of the previous section. They were asked to compose a choreographic response to it, a continuation, all choreographic material being in the form of a solo. Subsequently, the last few seconds of this new material was passed to the following choreographer, and so on. To start the process, Joanne Leighton made the first «choreographic module». At the conclusion of the process, the material was assembled in the order in which it was created, with each « choreographic module » following its generative precedent.

This sequence of solo material, 58 minutes long, became a «choreographic score» and was used as the starting point and base for the construction of the work for 7 dancers.

For the final piece, the solo material is always present and acts as a guiding thread. However it is expanded and developed by the 7 dancers across the duration of the full-length work through the use of a range of techniques. This solo is reproduced, commented upon, amplified, reflected for the duration of the piece. These processes  bring into play permutation, transformation, combination, derivation, parody, pastiche, imitation, reduction and augmentation, distortion, contamination and substitution.  Duos, larger sections in unison, multi-layered renderings - all spin off from the original Rotating Corpse and various «choreographic modules», which becomes, in effect, a score to be (re)interpreted. This is very similar to the compositional technique in music, «cantus firmus», or fixed voice, where a pre-existing monophonic melody is used as the basis for the construction of a new polyphonic work.

Central to the process of Exquisite Corpse is the question of documentation and transmission of danced material. The work poses diverse questions including «alongside direct oral transmission or the use of video, what non-textual forms of notation, composition, documentation or description are available to us for the conservation and the exchange of choreographic content ?». In order to facilitate the accurate exchange of information between the choreographers involved in the Rotating Corpse process, the piece also explores new ways of documenting and transmitting dance material through the use of multimedia and informatique systems.