Dance

This collection surveys the choreographic turn in the artistic imagination from the1950s onwards, and in doing so outlines the philosophies of movement instrumental to the developmentof experimental dance. By introducing and discussing the concepts of embodiment and corporeality,choreopolitics, and the notion of dance in an expanded field, Dance establishesthe aesthetics and politics of dance as a major impetus in contemporary culture. It offerstestimonies and writings by influential visual artists whose work has taken inspiration from danceand choreography. Dance--because of its ephemerality, corporeality, precariousness, scoring, andperformativity--is arguably the art form that most clearly engages the politics of aesthetics incontemporary culture. Dance's ephemerality suggests the possibility of an escape from the regimes ofcommodification and fetishization in the arts. Its corporeality can embody critiques ofrepresentation inscribed in bodies and subjects. Its precariousness underlines the fragility ofcontemporary states of being. Scoring links it with conceptual art, as language becomes thearticulator for possible as well as impossible modes of action. Finally, because dance alwaysestablishes a contract, or promise, between its choreographic planning and its actualization inmovement, it reveals an essential performativity in its aesthetic project--a central concern forboth art and critical thought in our time.