Each dance excerpt posted on our website importantly and differently attends to an aspect of what it means to be embodied. Collectively, these works offer a sumptuous multi-dimensional perspective on what it means to be “a body.” Given that bodies are never a neutral entity, and are always nested within experience, perspective, identity, stigma, and mores (to name a few strands), how does each of these dance works bring perspective to “a body” in different ways? Please write a response below each video musing on how each artist’s dance excerpt invites you to attend to the question, “What is a body?”
Please note that responding to the question, “What is a body in this work?” is deliberately stepping away from subjective critical judgement (good/bad). As well, we are moving away from an attention to composition, craft, structure, or movement choices. This approach is an opportunity to look at a dance as a way of theorizing ideas and experience—in this case, we look to these dances to theorize “the body.”