WiSe 22/23: Dance and/as Critique: An Introduction to Dance Studies
Lucia Ruprecht
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‘What is Critique?’ Michel Foucault asks in his 1978 essay with the same title, famously answering his own question by defining critique as ‘the art of not being governed quite so much’. Exploring approaches to the practice of critique by Foucault, Theodor Adorno, Judith Butler, and others, this lecture offers an introduction to Dance Studies as critical activity that provides theory for dance, while enabling us at the same time to appreciate dance itself as theory. Looking for instance at the ‘auto-critique of power’ (Mark Franko) in baroque dance in French court ballet, the reform of ballet in the enlightenment, modernism’s ‘gestural revolution’, and the politics of postmodern and contemporary dance, we will address examples of theatre dance from the 17th to the 21st centuries, learning about both significant works and significant research. At once making and suspending meaning, dance dismantles norms while also holding them up. It is thus a form of critique while also itself being in need of critique. Ultimately, critique is seen, here, not so much in terms of finding fault, but as an analytical and creative engagement with the given that opens up an alternative space of possibility and ‘futurity’ (José Esteban Muñoz).
Vorlesungssprache: Englisch
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