Dance is practiced in many forms and for many reasons, including social, educative, political and therapeutic reasons. This article will consider the philosophy of dance as a Western theater or concert art, by which I mean the sort of art that is practiced in a performance space and that is offered for some sort of audience or spectator appreciation. Further, this entry will focus on the philosophy of dance that has developed as a subset of philosophical aesthetics, considering philosophical questions such as “what is the nature of a dance?” and “how are dance performances appreciated, experienced and perceived?” Of course, seeking to answer traditional questions important to philosophical aesthetics is just one of many ways to approach dance in order to better understand what it is and why it matters to us. There are theories and insights offered by dance studies scholars, historians, educators, anthropologists, practitioners, dance critics and others, for example, that are relevant to the questions asked by philosophical aestheticians. Philosophy students and others who are interested in dance philosophy are strongly advised to consider sources from outside of the academy of philosophy and to conduct their own research in a way that makes use of the rich and enlightening work that comes from these other fields of inquiry. In addition the dance philosopher must take care to identify which methodology is being used to discuss which question and for what purposes. While analytic philosophers of aesthetics might want to know what the “work” of dance as art is, for example, this may not be a question of relevance to the continental, pragmatic or process philosopher (and even less relevant to the dance studies scholar). Similarly, accounts of dance that focus heavily on the lived experience of dance as art for both the performer and the audience that answers to the truth of that experience for dance practitioners may be of interest to pragmatists and phenomenological philosophers but may not be accepted as relevant by some analytic philosophers. (Aili Bresnahan)
Posted on: Tue, 13 Jan 2015 00:48:31 +0000