Physical Education in the Aesthetic Mode: Transatlantic Traffic in Expressive Movement in the Early Decades of the 20th Century

Abstract

In his recent book In Praise of Athletic Beauty, German intellectual Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht (2006) stimulated an important debate around the promise of approaching history in the aesthetic mode. He argued persuasively for much greater attention to theories of aesthetics and the politics and beauty of sport and bodily performance – what he calls kinetic beauty. Yet, historical work on physical culture and physical education has not paid much attention to aesthetics and to expressive movement forms such as modern dance and artistic and rhythmic gymnastics. We have many studies about the scientific and medical foundations of physical education and their relationship to efficient and healthful modes of physical training and purposive gymnastics, but we know surprisingly little about the diffusion and long term impacts on the profession of expressive movement forms within (and related to) the profession on both sides of the Atlantic (Kirk, 1998). This is unfortunate given that physical educators are currently struggling to sustain their legitimacy in schools with athletic, sporting and fitness pursuits while at the same time enthusiasm for all kinds of dance in popular culture is escalating.