On not being able to dance
the interring
pp. 205-215
in: Stuart Grant, Jodie McNeilly-Renaudie, Matthew Wagner (eds), Performance phenomenology, Berlin, Springer, 2019Abstract
What makes it hard to dance? Twentieth-century phenomenologists drew attention to the importance of the lived body, and dance is the art form for which the lived body is literally central. Why then isn't dance the easiest art form to engage in? Phenomenologists are drawn to situations where a phenomenon breaks down, which can open insights into the phenomenon itself. Here the phenomenon is the ability to dance where one might normally expect to. This paper invokes Marion Milner's book On Not Being Able to Paint (from which the title is borrowed). It discusses views of David Kleinberg-Levin, Maxine Sheets-Johnstone, Iris Young, and others. Parallel to Heidegger's notion of the Enframing, what causes the disappearing dimensions of animate form is the Interring.
