Description
Book SynopsisPerforming Temporality in Contemporary European Dance develops a new framework to understand how temporality is performed in contemporary dance. It combines an in-depth analysis of the choreographic practices of Jonathan Burrows & Matteo Fargion, Ivana Müller, Mette Edvardsen and Mårten Spångberg with a close study of the philosophical work of Bergson, Deleuze and Bachelard.
Table of Contents Introduction 4
Only Concepts? Dance and the conceptual 5
Only live? Dance and the ephemeral 8
Shaping time from within: rhythm and dance 10
Going against the flow: rhythm in contemporary dance 12
Dance-philosophy: an infinite conversation. 17
Articulation of the chapters 19
2. Rhythm is life: rhythm in German Ausdruckstanz. 23
The ‘doctrine of energy’ and the rise of fatigue. 24
The birth of Körperkultur: Dalcroze’s Eurhythmics. 28
Rhythm in the beginning of the twentieth century: Rudolf Bode and Rudolf Laban. 29
Intermezzo: The evolution of the concept rhythm in Bergson’s oeuvre. 36
Ausdruckstanz and Körperkultur: Mary Wigman’s ecstatic rhythms. 38
Intermezzo: German Ausdruckstanz and the body politics during the Nazi era. 43
Conclusion: Becoming rhythm, becoming life. 44
3. Dancing in the meantime: syncopation in the work of Jonathan Burrows and Matteo Fargion. 47
On the fence: rhythm and milieu in Deleuze and Guattari’s Of the Refrain. 51
Playing apart: rhythm and syncopation. 56
Intermezzo: Transatlantic and the resistance of roots. 61
Following the rhythm: the relation between rhythms and patterns. 64
Conclusion: Syncopation’s trouble. 66
4. Still dance: hesitation in Ivana Müller’s While We Were Holding It Together 69
Intermezzo: dance and movement, a modernist love affair 72
Still-act: the tableau vivant 73
Time as hesitation: Bergson and the suspension of time. 75
Intermezzo: the still, or the cinematographic experience of modern times. 79
The space of elsewhere: Bachelard’s poetic imagination. 82
Intermezzo: imagination, intuition and the task of the artist 87
Conclusion: What about tomorrow.. 90
5. Stumbling through time: repetition in the work of Mette Edvardsen. 93
The logic of the phrase: repetition in Accumulation and Dance. 98
Stumbling through language: repetition in Black and No title. 103
Running Out of Time: Performing the Eternal Return. 107
Intermezzo: The triple murder of the eternal return, or Deleuze thinks death. 112
Conclusion: The amnesiac witness. 113
6. Dark Utopia, Or Sleeping Through Marten Spångberg’s Natten. 116
Dancing with myself 118
Spending the Natten together. 120
Conclusion: Sushi or sashimi 123
7. Stealing time: Rhythmic operations in a society of control 125
Bibliography. 152
