Dance Theory as a Practice of Critique

Gabriele Klein

doi:10.1590/2237-2660109197

Abstract

ABSTRACT Using dance as an example, the text discusses the questions of what aesthetic criticism means and how it manifests itself. Drawing on philosophical and social science positions on critique (Foucault, Butler, Bourdieu), he develops a practical-theoretical view of the practice of critique in contemporary dance.

Highlights

RESUMO – Teoria da Dança como uma Prática de Crítica – Ao utilizar a dança como um exemplo, o texto discute a questão de como a crítica estética pode manifestar a si mesma, como também do significado que ela comporta
Since the 1990s, the notion of dance and/or choreographic practice as critical practice has played a major role in dance studies
Two questions are of particular interest: How can we define critical practice in dance and choreography? And: What is the frame of reference for this critical practice?

Summary

Dance Theory as a Practice of Critique

ABSTRACT – Dance Theory as a Practice of Critique – Using dance as an example, the text discusses the questions of what aesthetic criticism means and how it manifests itself. Pirkko Husemann’s description of artistic methods of working as critical practice (Husemann, 2009), Susan Foster’s theorem of embodied politics i.e. the politics of embodiment (Foster, 1996; 2002), Randy Martin’s theory of mobilisation (Martin, 1998) or André Lepecki’s topos of kinaesthetic politics (Lepecki, 2006) are all prime examples of this tendency All of these texts were written in the 1990s, like the artistic practices that they refer to – in other words in an age in which society radically began to change. The end, the prefix post and the concepts of limitation and boundaries were central topics of cultural and social academic discourses in the 1990s These dance theories, which identify choreographic practice as being critical or political (or even occasionally use criticism and the political as synonyms), seem to stem themselves against the apocalyptic mood. Two questions are of particular interest: How can we define critical practice in dance and choreography? And: What is the frame of reference for this critical practice?

Dance and Choreography as Critical Practice

What does the Term Practice Mean?

How can Practice thus Articulate itself as Critical Practice?

What is the Framework of Critical Practice?

What could be a Place of Critique?