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Dance as Culture of Knowledge

Body Memory and the Challenge of Theoretical Knowledge
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Knowledge in Motion
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Dance as Culture of KnowledgeBody Memory and the Challenge of Theoretical KnowledgeGabriele BrandstetterDance and knowledge: do these terms not mutually exclude each other? What qualifications – in terms of knowledge – are linked to the cultural patterns of movement we call ›dance‹? »Why,« asked Noa Eshkol, founder of the Eshkol-Wachman-Movement-Notation, [...] why are we such illiterates when it comes to movement?« [...] We have a musical notation system, so why has culture not created a suitable movement notation, a way to think movement, to conceive it? We also have a body, not just a voice?1And she gives a second answer – in addition to the notation she devel-oped: »We change all the time. So how can you make a notation about change ...?«2Why are we illiterates when it comes to dance and passing on records of movement? Rudolf von Laban also asked this question when presenting his concept of kinetography to the general public during the first German dancers’ congress, held in Magdeburg in 1927. The second dancers’ con-gress took place in Essen in 1928; over one thousand dancers took part in a plenary assembly in which fierce discussions preceded the adoption of a resolution to found a »Hochschule für Tanz« (Academy for Dance) and create a »Scientific Sociological Research Centre for Movement«. The 1 | Katarina Holländer: »Noten des Tanzes. Vom Versuch, das Tanzen mit Worten und Zeichen festzuhalten. Und ein Besuch in Noa Eshkols Werk-statt der Verschriftlichung«, in: du. Zeitschrift für Kultur 765, April 2006, p. 68. 2 | Ibid., p. 69.
© 2015 transcript Verlag

Dance as Culture of KnowledgeBody Memory and the Challenge of Theoretical KnowledgeGabriele BrandstetterDance and knowledge: do these terms not mutually exclude each other? What qualifications – in terms of knowledge – are linked to the cultural patterns of movement we call ›dance‹? »Why,« asked Noa Eshkol, founder of the Eshkol-Wachman-Movement-Notation, [...] why are we such illiterates when it comes to movement?« [...] We have a musical notation system, so why has culture not created a suitable movement notation, a way to think movement, to conceive it? We also have a body, not just a voice?1And she gives a second answer – in addition to the notation she devel-oped: »We change all the time. So how can you make a notation about change ...?«2Why are we illiterates when it comes to dance and passing on records of movement? Rudolf von Laban also asked this question when presenting his concept of kinetography to the general public during the first German dancers’ congress, held in Magdeburg in 1927. The second dancers’ con-gress took place in Essen in 1928; over one thousand dancers took part in a plenary assembly in which fierce discussions preceded the adoption of a resolution to found a »Hochschule für Tanz« (Academy for Dance) and create a »Scientific Sociological Research Centre for Movement«. The 1 | Katarina Holländer: »Noten des Tanzes. Vom Versuch, das Tanzen mit Worten und Zeichen festzuhalten. Und ein Besuch in Noa Eshkols Werk-statt der Verschriftlichung«, in: du. Zeitschrift für Kultur 765, April 2006, p. 68. 2 | Ibid., p. 69.
© 2015 transcript Verlag

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter 1
  2. Content 5
  3. Preface 9
  4. Introduction 15
  5. Dance as Culture of Knowledge
  6. Dance in a Knowledge Society 25
  7. Dance as Culture of Knowledge 37
  8. Trickstering, Hallucinating and Exhausting Production 49
  9. What is an Artistic Laboratory? 59
  10. Artistic Research
  11. The Mode of Knowledge Production in Artistic Research 73
  12. Artistic Research as an Expanded Kind of Choreography Using the Example of Emio Greco / PC 81
  13. Talking about Scores: William Forsy the’s Vision for a New Form of »Dance Literature« 91
  14. If you don’t know, why do you ask? 101
  15. How Do You Want to Work Today? 111
  16. Body Knowledge and Body Memory
  17. Making Worlds Available 121
  18. Flickering and Change 129
  19. Expeditions to the Inner Teacher 137
  20. Sharing with Others 147
  21. About Risks and ›Side Effects‹ of Dancing 155
  22. Dance History and Reconstruction
  23. Capturing the Essence 165
  24. Re- Constructions: Figures of Thought and Figures of Dance: Nijinsky’s FAUNE 173
  25. What the Body Remembers 185
  26. Reconstructing Dore Hoyer’s AFFECTOS HUMANOS 193
  27. Digestion and Infusion 201
  28. The Body as Archive 207
  29. For a Participatory Theatre: Touching Instead of Fumbling 219
  30. On the Threshold 227
  31. The Politics of Collective Attention 235
  32. Generating Space 243
  33. Critique versus Critical Practice? 251
  34. Professional Education and Retraining in Dance
  35. Performing the School 259
  36. Building a Common Language 267
  37. On Considering a Comparative Approach 275
  38. Break- Up: New Paths in Dance Education 283
  39. Dance Careers in Transition 289
  40. Dance Pedagogy and Cultural Work
  41. Working on Experience 299
  42. Learning Unconsciously 307
  43. Art is not a Luxury 311
  44. The Students Have to Come First 317
  45. Notes on Contributors 325
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