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There is no archive or museum of human movement, no place where choreographies can be collected and conserved in pristine form. The central consequence of this is the incapacity of philosophy and aesthetics to think of dance as a positive and empirical art. In the eyes of philosophers, dance refers to a space other than art, considered both more frivolous and more fundamental than the artwork without ever quite attaining the status of a work. Unworking
Choreography develops this idea and postulates an unworking as evidenced by a conspicuous absence of references to actual choreographic works within philosophical accounts of dance; the late development and partial
dominance of the notion of the work in dance in contrast to other art forms such as painting, music, and theatre; the difficulties in identifying dance works given a lack of scores and an apparent resistance within the art form to the possibility of notation; and the questioning of ends of dance in contemporary practice and the relativisation of the very idea that dance artistic or choreographic processes aim at work production.
There is no archive or museum of human movement, no place where choreographies can be collected and conserved in pristine form. The central consequence of this is the incapacity of philosophy and aesthetics to think of dance as a positive and empirical art. In the eyes of philosophers, dance refers to a space other than art, considered both more frivolous and more fundamental than the artwork without ever quite attaining the status of a work. Unworking
Choreography develops this idea and postulates an unworking as evidenced by a conspicuous absence of references to actual choreographic works within philosophical accounts of dance; the late development and partial
dominance of the notion of the work in dance in contrast to other art forms such as painting, music, and theatre; the difficulties in identifying dance works given a lack of scores and an apparent resistance within the art form to the possibility of notation; and the questioning of ends of dance in contemporary practice and the relativisation of the very idea that dance artistic or choreographic processes aim at work production.
Frédéric Pouillaude is Lecturer in Aesthetics and Philosophy of Art
at the University of Paris-Sorbonne and Junior Member of the
Institut Universitaire de France. This book was originally
published in French as Le Désoeuvrement Chorégraphique. Étude sur
la Notion d'Oeuvre en Danse (Vrin, 2009).
"Ecumenical yet provocative, studied yet playful, a contemporary
classic that stands out for balancing the reality of dance against
philosophy's struggle to theorize it...Essential reading."--Dominic
McIver Lopies, Distinguished University Scholar and Professor of
Philosophy, The University of British Columbia
"Pouillaude moves dance studies forward toward new ways of
theorizing how choreographic works exist without allowing us to
neglect the precise historical forms in which they do indeed
remain."--Carrie Noland, Professor of French, University of
California - Irvine
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