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Movement Philosophy, between Subjectivity and the Body

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Tuesday, December 03, 2013
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
Philipa Rothfield

This talk will outline and contrast two ways of looking at dance through philosophy. The first approach emphasizes the role of the lived body within dance. The dancer¿s experience and perceptions play a key role in this approach, which looks at training and practice as forming components of the dancer¿s movement subjectivity and kinesthetic sensibility. The second approach delves beneath the dancer¿s felt subjectivity, appealing to the myriad forces that make up the event of dancing. Dancing is conceived here as the utilization of corporeal forces within and beyond the body. According to the latter approach, the dancer¿s experience and subjectivity is a formation, produced perhaps through culture and training but is not the ultimate source of movement. Implicit in each of these approaches is the philosophical work of Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Friedrich Nietzsche.Philipa Rothfield is an honorary Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia. She has published widely on feminism, philosophy of the body, medical ethics and political philosophy. She is a dance critic and co-convenor of the Choreography and Corporeality working group of the International Federation of Theatre Research. She continues to dance and occasionally performs, having danced for many years with the Modern Dance Ensemble Dance Exchange.