Choreography Invisible

Dance is often considered an ephemeral art, one that disappears nearly as soon as it materializes, leaving no physical object behind. Yet some dance practice involves people trying to embody something that exists before - and survives beyond - their particular acts of dancing. What exactly is that thing? And (how) do dances continue to exist when not performed? Anna Pakes seeks to answer these and related questions in this book, drawing on analyticphilosophy of art to explore the metaphysics of dance making, performance and disappearance. Focusing on Western theater dance,Pakes also traces the different ways dances have been conceptualized across time, and what those historical shifts imply for the ontology of dance works.

Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals., This wonderfully rich book is essential reading for anyone interested in better understanding the objects that engage us in dance practice, dance criticism, and dance appreciation. Pakes's exploration of central issues in dance ontology is informed by a deep knowledge of dance history and dance practice, and by an astute critical grasp of the relevant philosophical issues. Dance, as Pakes notes, has been marginal to debates in analytic ontology of art: this book shows why this must no longer be the case., With clarity, lucidity, and richly informed insight, Pakes explores the identity and ontology of dance. Her focus on dance history, practice, and aesthetics discourse provides stunningly original and erudite exploration of what dance works are. Pakes weaves a complex tapestry drawing from an astonishing range of current and classical proposals. Future work on these important issues cannot help but be shaped by the fresh contributions in this splendid book.

Anna Pakes is Reader in Dance Studies at University of Roehampton, where she specializes in philosophy of dance, especially analytic philosophical approaches and themes. She is a former dancer and choreographer, co-editor of the anthology Thinking through Dance, English translator of Frédéric Pouillaude's Unworking Choreography (OUP, 2017), and winner of the Selma Jeanne Cohen Prize in Dance Aesthetics(2018).