Dancing with the sound of birds: Atmospheres and translation in ArtsCross/Danscross

In this article I consider three instances of the extra-linguistic translation of embodiment, affect and aesthetics in the context of intercultural performance during the ArtsCross/Danscross project between 2011 and 2013. Drawing on Francois Jullien’s proposition that cultural knowledges might be considered in respect of ‘divergence’ rather than ‘difference’, I draw together Western phenomenologies of atmosphere with Chinese aesthetics to examine movement among bodies as atmospheric currents. Through close readings of instances of translation as it relates to dance practice in rehearsals for Bulareyaung Pagarlava’s Uncertain… Waiting… (2011), Liu Yan’s Say to Him (2012) and Riccardo Buscarini’s No Lander (2013), I argue that attention to the affective aesthetics of atmosphere allows for an understanding of how intercultural performance projects such as ArtsCross/Danscross model modes of ‘feeling together, differently’.