Changing Dance Works

Abstract

The chapter discusses how variability and change pose particular issues for an ontology of dance works as structures of action-types, which prompts consideration of some alternative positions. The argument (developed by Guy Rohrbaugh) that dance works are historical individuals or continuants is elaborated and critically discussed. The chapter also considers a perdurantist alternative: that dance works are fusions of their performances or temporal parts. Both endurantism and perdurantism struggle to account for the principles of continuity uniting the various embodiments or parts of works, however. The chapter reexamines the idea of persistence in the context of historical dance practice and explores the significance of processes of oral transmission for the continued existence and variability of dance works, focusing on the different levels of intention at which the action constituting a dance might be described. The relative importance of these levels at different historical moments is considered.