This book is a philosophical and artistic examination of the singularity of the concept of time in contemporary dance. Are timeframes created by dance different from timeframes created by other forms of art? What experiences of time does contemporary dance invite us to share? How strong is the transitory body?
Combining theoretical approach with testimonies, Geisha Fontaine provides a philosophical and artistic examination of the singularity of the concept of time in contemporary dance. She creates a dialogue between Pre-Socratics and postmodernists, between Gilles Deleuze and contemporary choreographers, etc. Through the analysis of time-based strategies by Merce Cunningham, Jérôme Bel, Xavier Le Roy, Myriam Gourfink, Hideyuki Yano, Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker, Pina Bausch and Trisha Brown, she questions the uses and role of time in creation from the 1950s to the present day. Building on her personal experience, she invites the reader to an aesthetic journey in all the ‘nows’ of dance.
She shows how choreographic time is both a one-on-one encounter with the other, a constant update of futures and, paradoxically, the assertion of reality even as it disappears.