Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rcrh6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-29T01:17:33.235Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Palimpsests: Dance Modernism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 March 2024

Julia Hoczyk
Affiliation:
Narodowy Instytut Muzyki i Tańca, Warsaw
Wojciech Klimczyk
Affiliation:
Jagiellonian University, Krakow
Get access

Summary

She must have touched hundreds of floors, sensing them underneath her (bare) feet, tracking them on her skin, experiencing new textures, probing them: they may have given her a sense of stability, or that of resistance. She stood on them, walked on them, ran on them, fell down and got back up again. She must have danced with them, too. Did she, though?

He must have touched hundreds of others. But also himself. Not only during dance classes, rehearsals, and performances, but also beyond them. In his daily life? Only if the classes, rehearsals, and performances were not part of the daily routine – and yet they were. Still, touch during rehearsals differs from that during performances. What were those types of touch like to him? Did he classify them, and if so, how? Is it possible to speak of specifically dance-related types of touch? Ones that must be learned, trained, and offered to the gaze, which does touch one, too, albeit in different ways (what is the [arbitrary?] difference between them?). He must have practiced some politics of touch. Did he, though?

They must have considered what they were doing. They must have had some notions of their own practice. They must have justified their dance (given that they might have pursued other paths through life), i.e., stand for something, and against something else. This is what choreography appears to be about: making a discursive sense of motion. But were they, indeed, after motion? They had to think about it, they can't have been sure of what they were doing. They can't have performed modernism. Modernism came later, or was rather prescribed for us and administered to them much like a treatment to the uncertain experience of dance movement, the elusiveness of movability (let me call it “dancing”), which we discerned in them (or which we [have] imputed to them?). Modernism had to be written in order to make sense of what they did. It had to be written by others, just like they had to write (about) “their” movement. Did they, though?

The above questions are all theoretical, i.e,. they follow on from an attempt to systematize practice, subject it to contemplative observation, one that is by no means passive or (contrary to the more radical constructivists) self-referential.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Jagiellonian University Press
Print publication year: 2023

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×