Choreo-translations: Dancing at the borders of translation and choreography

This article explores choreography and translation as overlapping practices, examining how choreographic processes transform source material into dance. Drawing on theories from translation studies – including feminist and prismatic approaches – it reimagines translation beyond its traditional linguistic boundaries to include choreographic creation as an intermedial, choreo-translation form. Choreo-translation practices are positioned as dynamic sites for ethical and political acts of translation, highlighting resonances between choreographic and translational ethics. Building on this foundation, the article shifts focus to examine the application of translation theories within the dance studio. Through my own choreographic practice, work as a dance dramaturg, and teaching with BA and MA Dance and Theatre students, I outline a series of studio-based exercises designed to explore how translation functions as a creative, constraint-driven process. These practices foreground the performer’s creative agency and engage with concepts such as ethical engagement, multiplicity and embodied meaning-making. By combining theoretical inquiry with studio experimentation, the article proposes a framework for understanding choreography not merely as a representational act but as a dialogic, translational encounter with source materials. It calls for renewed interdisciplinary dialogue and positions choreography as a site for innovating translational thought and practice.