Kinesthesia, Empathy, and Related Pleasures: An Inquiry into Audience Experiences of Watching Dance Matthew Reason and Dee Reynolds D ance is frequently described as being “about” movement. “Dance,” writes Ann Daly, “although it has a visual component, is fundamentally a kinesthetic art” (Daly 1992, 243). Audience experiences of dance can therefore be conceptualized in terms of responses to movement, most prominently in terms of what has been described as “kinesthetic empathy.” What does it mean, however, to watch, respond to, or appreciate movement? And how does the historical and theoretical concept of kinesthetic empathy relate to contemporary audiences’ articulations of the experience of watching dance? his article sets out to answer these questions by exploring diferent kinds of kin- esthetic and empathetic responses and pleasures (and indeed displeasures) articulated by spectators of live dance across diferent styles and contexts. Pleasure is of particular Dr. Matthew Reason is a senior lecturer in theatre and head of programme for M.A. studies in creative practice at York St. John University, United Kingdom. His work explores themes relating to performance documentation, relective practice, audience research, theater for young audiences, live art and contemporary performance, and cultural policy. He is currently working on “Watching Dance: Kinesthetic Empathy,” a cross-disciplinary research project funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. He is the author of Documentation, Disappearance and the Representation of Live Performance (Palgrave, 2006) and he Young Audience: Exploring and Enhancing Children’s Experiences of heatre (Trentham, 2010). He has also published in a numer- ous journals, including New heatre Quarterly, Dance Research Journal, Performance Research, and Studies in heatre and Performance. Dee Reynolds is professor of French at the University of Manchester, United Kingdom. She researches on dance history and theory, dance audiences, and comparative aesthetics. She is cur- rently principal investigator on “Watching Dance: Kinesthetic Empathy,” funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, 2008–2011 (<http://www.watchingdance.org>). She is the author of Rhythmic Subjects: Uses of Energy in the Dances of Mary Wigman, Martha Graham and Merce Cunningham (Dance Books, 2007) and Symbolist Aesthetics and Early Abstract Art: Sites of Imaginary Space (Cambridge University Press, 1995) and co-editor with Penny Florence of Feminist Subjects, Multi-Media: Cultural Methodologies (Manchester University Press, 1995). Her publications have appeared in numerous journals, including Body and Society, Body Space and Technology Journal, Dance Research and Dance heatre Journal.