The “Body in Motion” as the Substance of Dance Improvisation? Based on Motifs from Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s \u3cem\u3ePhenomenology of Perception\u3c/em\u3e

In the beginning of my academic career, it was my personal experience of dance practice that provided a direct impulse for studying the phenomenon of dance as art from a philosophical perspective. It was that same experience that drew my attention to the concept of aesthetic engagement proposed by Arnold Berleant. His theory, in my view, captures the fundamental aspects of dance in a unique way.[1] That early study led me to develop and promote the aesthetics of sensitivity, which in turn created a basis for the appreciation of dance as a practice that is inseparable from life.[2] Many problems explored by Berleant – such as the inseparability of perception from action, appreciation of the living and sensing body, and understanding of the space as relational and dependent on the body’s motion – can also be found in the thought of Maurice Merleau-Ponty. His arguments, in my opinion, help explain factors in modern dance such as somatic engagement in the process of its perception or the performative character of an event that is inseparable from its broadly construed context or the environment in which it occurs. In the course of his academic career, Arnold Berleant has frequently referred to Merleau-Ponty’s thought and, inspired by the latter’s works, employed,, in his own reflection, notions such as those of chiasm, of the flesh of the world, or of the body as a field of forces – which he also used in reference to dance.[3] He has been most acutely sensitive, however, to the remnants of dualistic thinking present in terminology like that of “the interior” and “the exterior,” which he found even in Merleau-Ponty’s work.[4] This article is a proposal for one of many possible ways of re-interpreting Berleant’s concept of dance as a practice in which elements of an existential nature are tightly connected with aesthetic, cognitive, or environmental ones. In this text, space in dance is not construed as something external to the body but as something emanating from its movement, merging with broadly understood surroundings, and becoming an embodiment of our being in the world

Some remarks on conceptual dance from Richard Shusterman’s pragmatist perspective

The main aim of this presentation is to consider how performances that are called conceptual dance can be included in Richard Shusterman’s pragmatist aesthetics. The shows of artists such as Xavier Le Roy, Jan Ritsema and Jonathan Burrows cannot be classified as art in the traditional sense, but neither can they be labeled as everyday life or as theory - because they are situated on the borderline of these fields. In fact, their aim is to dismantle the determinants of dance as art, to critique accepted conventions, including those based on the division between the audience and the stage, and between the roles of the spectator and the artist. Thus, in order to consider such performances, the adoption of a transdisciplinary approach is necessary. The presentation will include performances by Le Roy Unititled, and by Ritsema and Burrows Weak Dance Strong Questions. Particular attention will be paid to the issue of bodily interaction, based on dismantling the hidden perceptual habits of the spectator in the public space of the theater. Consideration will also be given to the performative agency of artists’ bodies that critically questions the internalized conventions of the art world. Attempts to destabilize the perception process and shake off habits and expectations are treated as aesthetically and cognitively important components of experience

Can Arnold Berleant’s aesthetics of engagement be applied to conceptual dance?

The central aim of the article is to reflect on whether - and if so, how - Arnold Berleant’s theory of aesthetic engagement can be applied to works described with the controversial term "conceptual dance", in other words, to works that undermine the determinants of a dance per formance. Berleant stresses the open nature of his project of aesthetic experience; however, he does not describe works that seek to destabilize perception in dance performances. With this in mind, the concepts of aesthetics and critical aesthetics are considered as indicating a possi ble direction for the further development of the ideas outlined in Berleant’s sense and sensibility. This extension of Berleant’s thought enables the problem of destabilization of perception to be grasped, and encompasses the issues of criticality and the political, which animate the performances of Xavier Le Roy, Jan Ritsema and Jonathan Burrows

Some Remarks on Conceptual Dance from Richard Shusterman’s Pragmatist Perspecitive

The presented statement is part of the volume it covers a variety of responses from people who interact with art in different ways. The aim is to suggest to the participant of the contemporary world a new, personal perspective to rethink what is this area of our world that we label with art; thoughts with and without theoretical suggestions - reflections by the creators and reflections by the audience, teaching humility and uniqueness, perhaps - forming a fresh perspective on art