In this article, I describe the experience of dancing-a-walk. My specific focus is on the shift that I perceive in my body when I dance-a-walk rather than functionally walking. Following a firstperson perspective, I demonstrate how my experience of practicing dancing-a-walk interrogates the habit of walking and makes it come alive again as an expression of the body. First, I show how the practice of dancing-a-walk challenges the dichotomy between abstract and concrete movement proposed by Maurice Merleau-Ponty in the Phenomenology of Perception. Indeed, dancing-a-walk is an example of a concrete and yet already abstract movement. Then, I turn to concepts such as habits and body memory. By identifying how the perception of my body changes when I dance everyday movements (i.e., walking) versus when I execute such movements functionally, I aim to develop a new perspective on and vocabulary for a phenomenological definition of concrete/abstract movements within the context of dance.
This article introduces the practice of walking-as-dancing. In this article, the terms walk and walking are often considered as synonymous with wandering since the practice of walking-as-dancing that I will describe does not have a set goal. When walking-as-dancing, I explore the improvisational nature of a wandering movement that allows me to let go of certainty and attune to the not-yet-known. I define the body as a compass that guides us through the path of the curriculum-as-lived (Aoki, 1993) and the curriculum itself. Through the analysis of the practice of walking-as-dancing, I will show how the knowledge of the body is already in us; it is us.
Simona Bertozzi is an Italian dancer, choreographer, and performer based in Bologna, Italy. From 2008 to 2012, she worked on the project Homo Ludens. I propose this project, composed of four performances, as a case study that will investigate the multifaceted term “presence” within the context of dance. As a result of my research, I make an argument that a definition of presence, defined as a tension between motion and stillness, can be founded on Domenico da Piacenza's treatise Dela Arte di Ballare et Danzare (c. 1455).
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