Dancing Identity: Metaphysics In Motion PDF
Preview Dancing Identity: Metaphysics In Motion
dancing identity Dancing Identity metaphysics in motion Sondra Fraleigh university of pittsburgh press Published by the University ofPittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh, Pa., 15260 Copyright © 2004, University ofPittsburgh Press All rights reserved Manufactured in the United States ofAmerica Printed on acid-free paper 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Library ofCongress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Fraleigh, Sondra Horton, 1939– Dancing identity : metaphysics in motion / Sondra Fraleigh. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. isbn0-8229-4239-9(cloth : alk. paper) 1. Dance—Philosophy. 2. Art and dance. I. Title. gv1588.3.f7242004 792.8'01—dc22 2004013584 I dedicate this book, with appreciation, to my ancestors and to the dance of the future. contents Preface xi Introduction • Beauty’s Ways 1 Writing Self 1 Descending Pathways 3 Unfinished Work 6 On Special Metaphysics 7 On Dualism 8 Staging Metaphysics 10 part i • beginning 1. Embodying Metaphysics 15 Mastering the Body 15 Historical Backdrop 18 Embodying Feminism 20 Body as Spirit in Japan 26 2. First Sounds 32 Melodramatic Utterance 36 Hysteria: Cooling the Witch 39 Niwa:Goddess or Cyborg 44 3. Thickening Ambiguity 49 Dancing Beings 53 Bringing Body to Mind 54 Wholes and Holiness 60 viii | Contents I Will Walk 61 Our First Horizon 63 Somatics and Wholeness 64 Coherent Speech 69 Moving Off-Center 71 part ii • becoming 4. Anti-Essentialist Trio 87 Setting the Stage 87 Trio 92 Metaphysics of Sex 97 Critique of the Trio 101 Reassembling the Trio 105 Shakable Ballet 107 Gender-Bending Solutions 113 Phusis:Performing Nature 117 5. A Dance ofTime Beings 119 Ecstasis: Mastery or Matching 122 Touch and Kinesthesia 127 Soma 128 Matching Space 130 We Limp a Little 132 6. Letting the Difference Happen 136 Inmost Sway 136 The Dance of Equals 142 Lack of Art 144 Marking Time 145 Molecules of Motion 147 part iii • descen-dance 7. Messy Beauty and Butoh Invalids 153 Descen-dance, Obedience, and Resistance 153 Organic Faults, Somatic Solutions 160 Somatic Kinesiology 167 Nuclear Fallout and Butoh Invalids 170 Contents | ix Descendant Beauty 183 The Girl Who Lives with Cockroaches 190 8. Existential Haircut 194 Agency, Sexuality, and Natural Powers 197 Performing Freedom: Synergetic Humanism 205 Shadows and Broken Symmetries 216 Yin-Yang Reciprocity 224 Shared Pleasures 228 Dances to Do 234 9. The Morality of Joy 243 In the Beginning Is My Body 243 Falling Bravely 248 Ancestors, Wait! 251 Epilogue • The Fugitive in Her 255 Notes 257 Index 277
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