ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines the conceptual and practical perspectives of performative storytelling using a case study of a site-specific contemporary dance theatre performance at a medium-sized agri-business located in the east of England. Storytelling as a means to build authenticity in the corporate communication of brands has a relatively recent history in business research. Ever since Descartes’s foundational proposition, leading to the separation of emotion and feeling from rational discourse, scientific and abstract dialogue has been the main premise of academic thought, but there has been a growing recognition over the last 30 years of the contribution of narrative to organizations, including works by Schank and Morson (1990), Weick (1995), Simmons (2000) and Gabriel (2001) highlighting its role in tacit and implicit knowledge transfer through organizational structures. By sharing stories, employees may contribute to the interpretations of organizational practices (Boyce, 1997; Fenton & Langley, 2011) that can have the power to silence other narratives in both positive and negative ways (Simpson & Lewis, 2005; Geiger & Antonacopoulou, 2009).
