Recommendation and reflection on Humming the Bones by Dianne Reid

Humming the Bones – what a title, what a writer, what a force of movement Dr Dianne Reid is.

This is a beautifully written book about the life of performers – especially those working across dance, choreography, writing, screendance, teaching, and research. It is an intellectual and compassionate autobiography, yet also accessible and generous in what it offers the reader.

Reading it, I am reminded of Isadora Duncan – the same wild, passionate striving to understand life through movement, to inhabit space fully, and to live independently as an artist. The resilience it demands – a particular act of survival.

I had the great fortune of meeting Dianne Reid in 2007, when I spent three months in  Melbourne. I admired her from the very beginning. We met at Dancehouse, where I taught my weekly morning classes. I also took her classes myself, rediscovering the joy of dancing and gaining new inspiration for Dianne’s class and choreography.

We collaborated on a walking screendance piece, and I later invited Dianne to create a performance with me and my Japanese colleague Heidi S. Durning. Performing Dianne’s choreography was a privilege – I learned so much through that experience.

Looking back, I feel especially grateful for the time we spent revisiting collaborative works, touring, and creating under often unstable conditions – financially and spatially. Reading about her earlier life, which I previously knew little about, is deeply moving and sometimes heartbreaking. In many ways, we share similar artistic paths. While I never busked on the streets of Europe, I too moved between comedy, stand-up, and modern/postmodern dance.

Dianne Reid has long been a role model for me. Her integration of dance and text is powerful, witty, and confident. She is generous, energetic, and passionately engaged with movement, camera, and language. I have followed her articles and admired her video work, and shared it with my students. Her collaborations with lovely Mel Smith gave me yet a moment to follow her work and present it to audiences in Gothenburg, Sweden.

Her writing on intercultural practice is particularly striking. I have always wanted to dance in India, and through Dianne’s words, I feel as though I have already experienced something of that journey.

I bow to this book and to all the knowledge it carries.

Ami Skånberg ( also finally a Dr…), Gothenburg, Sweden