Choreographing immersion: embracing borders and difference

Stanton, Thea Choreographing immersion: embracing borders and difference. In: Routledge companion to bodies in performance. Routledge, pp. 1-17. (In Press)

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Abstract

Nearly twenty years ago I had my first immersive experience. Aged seventeen, I went to see immersive theatre company Punchdrunk’s production of Faust. Back then, immersion was, and remains, a multitudinous term, with a different meaning for everyone. In immersive scholarship, it is frequently described as a “generic referent” (Alston 3). However, as a teenager who frequently felt on the outside, my understanding of this first immersive experience was as an opportunity to move from the edge of somewhere to become truly part of something. As soon as I stepped out of the lift and entered an eerie all-encompassing dreamlike set spanning 150,000 square feet, I felt that I had crossed or even dismantled the border separating the territory of the spectators and the thrilling realm of the live performance. Gareth White argues that the word immersion implies “access to the inside of the performance” (1). My first immersive experience encapsulated this notion. I had crossed over, I belonged…

Item Type:	Book Section
Keywords:	choreography, heritage, impermeable border, immersive practice, corporeality, belonging
Depositing User:	Karen Smith
Date Deposited:	01 Jul 2026 14:03
Last Modified:	03 Jul 2026 05:31
URI:	https://theplace.repository.guildhe.ac.uk/id/eprint/48

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