UNITY OF BODY AND SOUL THROUGH DANCE
“Unity of Body/Mind, Body /Soul Dualities in Perception of Dance”
In this paper, I would like to focus on the subject of “Dance” in reconstruction of the body as a unity of Body/ Mind, Body/ Soul dualities. I claim: “in dance, the body cannot be thought without the togetherness of the body, mind and soul”, you cannot exclude your soul from the body while you are being in the sensation of the art of dance. Or you cannot exclude your mind while moving your body parts consciously and technically. Feeling of self-realization of the subject in the act of dance, as united body and soul. If we want to consider dance, as an art form, a way of expression of feelings, we cannot ignore its uniqueness of bodysoul. I will try to include my experiences as well as a review of the literature. In the paper, various body perceptions will be covered from Ancient Era to Modern Era, from Aristotle to Lacan, from Descartes’ dualisms to Meraleau-Ponty’s “Phenomenology of Perception”. Non- Cartesian understanding will be supported. Different approaches of dance forms in perceiving the body will be examined. One of the dance technique- contact improvisation dance- will be demonstrated as an example of where we could observe our body as becoming into being, as a soul, as a mind and the body itself together. As Aristo said: “the soul is nothing more than the living character of the body”.
Subjects to mention:
• Ancient understanding of the body&mind
• Cartesian –dualistic thinking, non-dualistic thinking
• Existential phenomenology
• Body and Phenomenology: Merleau-Ponty
• Dance and phenomenology
• Contact Improvisation
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a term Paper for Sociology of Body, submitted to Dr. Adnan Akçay ,ODTÜ, 2004
Middle East Technical University, Ankara
Gonca Gümüşayak
METU,Soc 2005
