Understanding dance / Graham McFee.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

McFee, Graham.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Dance--Philosophy.

Dance.

Aesthetics.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (345 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

New York : Routledge, 1992.

Summary:

Understanding Dance is a comprehensive introduction to the aestethetics of dance, and will be an essential text for all those interested in dance as an object of study. Focusing on the work of a number of major choreographers, companies and critics Graham McFee explores the nature of our understanding of Dance by considering the practice of understanding dance-works themselves. He concludes with a validation of the place of dance in society and in education. Troughout he provides detailed insights into the nature and appreciation of art as well as a general grouding in ph

Contents:

Cover; UNDERSTANDING DANCE; Title Page; Copyright Page; Table of Contents; Introduction; The project; Style, structure and audience; Autonomy for dance studies?; Rigour; Philosophy; Acknowledgements; Part I Groundwork; 1 Basic Concepts for Aesthetics; Definition and 'definiteness'; The objectivity of appreciation; The artistic and the (merely) aesthetic; Conclusion; Part II The Nature of Dance; 2 Dance as Action; The importance of the issue; Dance as a 'special kind of movement'; Understanding action; People, not machines; Two ways of talking; The importance of context

Insights from the two-language viewA technical point: defeasibility; Conclusion; 3 Dance as Art; Tradition and conventions of art; Conventions and understanding; An institutional account of art; A fundamental objection to institutional theories of art; A reply to this objection; A diagnosis of the origin of the objection; Digression: the 'community' view of concepts; Outcomes of the institutional analysis; Conclusion; 4 Dance as a Performing Art; Performing arts, multiples and identity; Type/token; The creation of the type-work; The thesis of notationality; Interpretation and performance

Performers' interpretationsFurther considerations; Re-evaluation; Variety among performances; Conclusion; 5 Dance as an Object of Understanding; Meaning, understanding and explanation; Meaning and institutional concepts; Two difficulties for the dance/language analogy; Objections from structural linguistics: an example; An area of disanalogy?; Interpretation and performance (again); Conclusion; Part III Understanding of Dance; 6 Understanding and Dance Criticism; Three topics for the understanding of dance; Two unsatisfactory accounts of criticism: 'rules' and scrutiny

A modest proposal for the extension of the critic's cognitive stockTwo provisos for an account of criticism as noticing; The restrictive proviso reconsidered; Arbitrariness and 'reading in'; Some criticisms of the view of criticism as noticing; 7 Understanding, Experience and Criticism; Dance as an object of understanding; The 'meaning' of dances identified with informed criticism; Interpretation and emotional education (I); Interpretation and emotional education (II); The knowledge-base of criticism; Conclusion; 8 The Point of Dance; Purposive versus artistic justification

Emotional education and conceptual changeThe objects of emotions; Art and life issues; Art works and art forms; Two theses for an account of art; Life issues and 'the familiar'; Conclusion; Part IV Concepts for Understanding; 9 Style and Technique; The notion of individual style; Two characteristics of style; The place of technique (I); Four notes of caution; Outcomes of the style/technique connection; Condition three: psychological reality; The place of technique (II); Conclusion; 10 Imagination and Understanding; Imagination and perception; Some objections considered

Three other ideas of the imaginary

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 328-338) and index.

ISBN:

9786610022205

OCLC:

475875497