3 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2016
E. Katan, Embodied Philosophy in Dance,
DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-60186-5_1
CHAPTER 1
1 DANCE
In the middle of the dance, one dancer steps into the center of the stage
and gets undressed. A female dancer lies with her back on the loor
beneath him, and observes her hands. She wears an outit resembling the
one he wore a moment before: lusterless, pastel, and pale overalls with
long sleeves. Her exposed body parts are dyed with grayish powder. His
naked body is covered with the same pigment. Seven dancers are sitting
among the audience and looking at the two dancers in the middle. Their
outits are similar, yet distinguished from one another by small nuances
and tones. In the moment described, the woman stays still; but before the
man joined her in the center, she had moved there alone. In her solo, she
looked as if she were unsuccessfully trying to hold on to the last forces
of movement and life. She slowly folded her body on the loor, pushing
it, and collapsing again. When she was shoving her body away from the
ground, she gained, for a short while, a loating state in her lesh, but
then again these momentary somatic lifts disappeared into breakdowns.
In her movements, it seemed as if traces of living forces began to stir
inside her. Then she stood up while the living vibrations she had acquired
were still moving within her body. As she was slowly vibrating, her arms
were lung into the air in repetitive, sharp explosions. While doing so, her
ingers became thick and folded, as if she were trying, repeatedly, to reach
something beyond her scope. Then her hands, limbs, and face became
Dance and Philosophy: Phrasing
an Entrance