This peer-reviewed journal article, “Ecologies of Dramaturgy in Dance Creation: a Conversation” published in the performance journal REPERTORIO explores Willkie’s creative process for the work Confession Publique, in which she occupies the triadic position of dramaturg, performer, and auto-ethnographer researcher. Beyond an interview, Willkie’s work comes into dialogue with the interdisciplinary artists and researchers of DE, creating a polyvocal project that centers around themes of agency, dramaturgy, embodiment, and movement.

Throughout Willkie’s career, two parallel interests have gradually emerged – the contribution of the performer to the creative process, and the dynamics of the necessarily collaborative operation that is contemporary choreography. Responding to the biopolitical reconfiguration caused by the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns, DE engaged in a sustained and collaborative writing practice conducted entirely within the shared digital platform, Google Docs. This activated tensions and resonances within the dialogue, where the bodies involved in the research became part of the dramaturgical co-composition of the writing process of the text. The asynchronous and dialogic engagement fostered both individual and collective critical reflection, not only facilitating a more equitable co-authorship model, but also generating alternative forms of reflexivity and writing methods.

Published in 2021, this text takes the form of a reflective, performative text crafted through a collaborative thinking and writing process.