Paper short abstract:

This paper argues that shared knowledge based on social identity makes 'seeing' dance a matter of embodied participation, but dance discourses convert the physical image through a complex process of metaphorisation into a sign of transcendent disembodiment.

Paper long abstract:

Dance dramatises the problem of vision and corporeality. In the social sciences, scholars have attempted to resolve the problem by overcoming the Cartesian 'mind-body' dichotomy, and have often over-emphasised the materiality of the body as a result. This paper draws on longstanding research into particular dances and asks how much visible physical gestures constitute the sum of the image. It will argue that shared knowledge based on social identity makes 'seeing' dance a matter of embodied participation, but dance discourses convert the physical image through a complex process of metaphorization into a sign of transcendent disembodiment. This has implications for how we conceptualize 'image'.

Dear Chris and Rupert,

The proposal draws on Javanese material I have referred to before, but reflects my arguments in my latest manuscript. I can expand it if you are interested.

Felicia