This book is the first full-length monograph examining the work of British choreographer Jonathan Burrows. Occasional critical engagement with his work has often lacked a detailed and rigorous analysis of the particular themes, methods and qualities of Burrows's wide-ranging artistic practice; a gap in Western European contemporary dance scholarship which this publication addresses. In her thorough, in-depth study, the author, Daniela Perazzo Domm, draws on her deep knowledge and long-standing research into his work to offer a comprehensive discussion of Burrows's career of over thirty years as a dancer, performer, choreographer, collaborator, curator, mentor and facilitator of dance. While this is a significant contribution to the field of dance and performance studies, it is also an invaluable resource for practitioners, researchers and students interested in dance and performance practice. The book offers fascinating new insights into Burrows's innovative creative working practices and artistic processes and is thus particularly interesting for those seeking expert knowledge on the particular methodologies and issues surrounding his work, yet it is also accessible to audiences new to his practice.

The monograph is organized into six chapters, each focusing on a different aspect of Burrows's artistic practice. Rather than following a chronological order, the book is structured around the overarching themes, ideas and perspectives emerging from the artists’ repertoire itself. Indeed, it is fascinating to see how the author finds connections between the different pieces, as common threads and preoccupations in Burrows's long-standing practice are brought to the forefront. Examining the paradoxical position that Burrows's pieces occupy between the formal and the experimental, between tradition and transformation, between content and concept, between reduction and excess, between the marginal and the mainstream, between the abstract and the minimal, between convention and innovation, the project highlights the radical potential of his choreographic methods and aesthetics. From his early group pieces from the 1980s, through to his duets with composer Matteo Fargion since the 2000s, to the latest online video project and most recent collaborative pieces, the monograph offers a full, if not complete, discussion of Burrows's work.

The book is well structured. In fact, among the strengths of the monograph are the chapter subtitles and frequent signposting to other sections in the book. Therefore the reader does not necessarily need to engage in a linear fashion; by dipping in and out of the essays, new connections can be made and original lines of thought emerge. The quality of the writing is of a high standard with smooth transitions as the author swiftly and eloquently navigates between close readings, vivid descriptions of the pieces, nuanced observations, theoretical interrogation of ideas and historical analysis, contextualizing the work through reviews and interviews with the artist himself as well as attending closely to Burrows's own written contributions to choreographic discourses across theory and practice.

Methodologically, the book resists interpretation in favour of engaging in an affective and experiential form of intellectual labour. By bringing the work in contact with recent French philosophy and Italian political theory, the author attends to the work so that new meanings, new poetics, can emerge. In particular, the central argument of the book positions Burrows's choreographic work as a ‘minor’ practice that articulates resistance ‘from within’ to normative ‘major’ codes and dominant modes of choreographic production (p. 23). Borrowing Deleuze and Guattari's (1986) notion of ‘minor language’, and thinking with art theorist Simon O'Sullivan's (2005) conceptualization of ‘minor art practices’, the author attends to Burrows’ (and Fargion's) frequent use of humour as a subversive strategy (to name but one quality discussed). Although the book does not shy away from articulating the productive tensions, compromises and contradictions in Burrows's work, its plurality, complexity and ambivalence, the care for and commitment to his work, always shine through.

Importantly, the monograph brings Burrows's practice in relation to recent publications in the field of dance theory and performance philosophy, drawing on arguments made by Bojana Cvejić, André Lepecki and Ramsay Burt, amongst others. By opening out his practice to these current debates, the book reaffirms the political significance of Burrows's oeuvre and thereby also asserts contemporary dance's potential as a vehicle for sociopolitical critique.

This book is a long-awaited careful assessment of one the most influential, prominent and progressive choreographers of contemporary dance today, and a rich and valuable contribution to dance and performance studies scholarship.