In the mid 1990 s Deborah Hay s work took a new turn. From her early experiments with untrained dancers, and after a decade of focusing on solo work, the choreographer began to explore new grounds of choreographic notation and transmission by working with experienced performers and choreographers. " Using the Sky: a dance" follows a similar path as Hay s previous books "Lamb at the Altar "and "My Body the Buddhist" by exploring her unrelenting quest for ways to both define and rethink her choreographic imagery through a broad range of alternately intimate, descriptive, poetic, analytical and often playful engagement with language and writing. This book is a reflection on the experiments that Hay set up for herself and her collaborators, and the ideas she discovered while choreographing four dances, "If I Sing to You" (2008), "No Time to Fly" (2010), "A Lecture on the Performance of Beauty" (2003), and the solo "My Choreographed Body" (2014). The works are revisited by unfolding a trove of notes and journal entries, resulting in a dance score in its own right, and providing an insight into Hay s extensive legacy and her profound influence on the current conversations in contemporary performance arts.".