The invisible of the dancing body

How is the dancing body experienced by the observer? In this chapter we aim to articulate a priori principles that decide our encounter with the body moving in dance. By describing these principles as a priori, we assume that the way the body in dance is made visible, given to view, is determined prior to conventions of dance. The main claim of this chapter is that in order for a body to be experienced as a dancing body, it is detached from principles of unity and coherence. The dancing body is detached from the unity of person, of idea or of theme, and from any unifying forces of such kind. Even if the dancing body is always singular and is unified as a dancing body, this prior unity is not dependent on notions such as ‘self’ or ‘person’ or ‘idea’. The body dancing can hence be experienced as fundamentally anonymous, as devoid of personal characteristics (like being of a certain sex, class, type). These ideas are exemplified by the paradigmatic case of the modernist solo dance.