1st Edition
Kinaesthetic Empathy, Ethics and Care A Phenomenology of Dance
Introduction to the English Translation
Translator’s Preface
Foreword: On Gravity by Angelin Preljocaj
Introduction
PART I. THE AESTHETICS OF EMPATHY
Chapter 1. Prelude by way of example: Wim Vandekeybus’s Blush
Chapter 2. Kinaesthetic empathy and dance theory: fundamentals of a concept
Chapter 3. Aesthetic emotion in dance: kinaesthetic experience of the flesh
Chapter 4. Between bodies: transitional space and potential space – the space of play
Chapter 5. Playing with gravity
PART II. A QUESTION OF ETHICS: UP-HOLDING, SUPPORT AND CARE
Chapter 6. Holding and handling: reciprocal care
Chapter 7. Care for being
Chapter 8. Up-holding and care
Chapter 9. The ethical force of dance
Chapter 10. Maurice Hamington and the embodied epistemology of care
Chapter 11. From kinaesthetic empathy to care for the other: DV8’s The Cost of Living
PART III. HEALING THE SELF, REPAIRING THE FLESH: ΔESIRE’S (RE-)DESIGN
Chapter 12. Dance and care of the self: from the weight of the flesh to an ethics of subjectivation
Chapter 13. Overture by way of a conclusion: movement as ethical restoration
Biography
Christine Leroy is a lecturer in philosophy, with a PhD in philosophy of art from Panthéon Sorbonne University (Paris I). She specialises in philosophy of the body and is a former dancer. Her publications include three monographs: La Phénoménologie (2018), Phénoménologie de la danse. De la chair à l'éthique (2021), of which this volume is the English translation, and Le Corps (2022). She also co-edited with Chiara Palermo the anthology Pesanteur et portance. Une éthique de la gravité (2022). Her work focuses on kinaesthetic empathy and the ethical dimension of experiences of gravity and movement in art and clinical practice.
Anna Pakes is a translator and researcher, specialising in philosophy of dance. Her authored publications have included Choreography Invisible: The Disappearing Work of Dance (2020) and the co-edited anthology Thinking through Dance: The Philosophy of Dance Performance and Practices (2013), as well as numerous articles and essays on a range of dance philosophical themes. Her translation work has included books by Frédéric Pouillaude and Noé Soulier, as well as essays for Paris 8 Danse in Translation. She has a background in dance practice, having trained at the Centre national de la danse contemporaine in Angers, France.
"This is a text that resonates beyond the specificities of dance performance and has relevance for understanding all kinds of aesthetic encounters, and their ethical implications. Whether or not one ends by agreeing with the author’s central argument, this is a book that will challenge the reader to review their basic assumptions about the nature of care, and at the same time will certainly deepen understanding of the process of giving and receiving care. Leroy’s book makes a major contribution to the growing literature on care aesthetics, and the appearance of this translation should mean that her work assumes its rightful place at the centre of international debates in this fascinating field."
Martin Robb, Professor of Care Ethics and Culture at The Open University, UK, and host of the Careful Thinking podcast
