Reading: Dances of Power and Rebellion

Reading: Dances of Power and Rebellion (Gabriele Klein)

What does dance have to do with social power relations? Can dance contribute to their stabilization or destabilization? How can protest, resistance, or social criticism be danced? The lecture discusses these questions using selected historical and contemporary examples. Gabriele Klein will argue that dance is ambivalent in its relationship to power: precisely because it is a physical art form, it can contribute to stabilizing and maintaining existing social conditions. At the same time, unlike other art forms or movement practices, it can make aesthetic resistance, social criticism, and political protest directly visible and tangible on and through the body.