Touching and Being Touched 21-08-1313:10:54 TITEL4 U188 Format:155x230mm Metaserver2(PKW) Release19.00xSOLAR31May13.1609onFriMay3117:09:48BST2013 21-08-1313:10:54 TITEL4 U188 Format:155x230mm Metaserver2(PKW) Release19.00xSOLAR31May13.1609onFriMay3117:09:48BST2013 Touching and Being Touched Kinesthesia and Empathy in Dance and Movement Edited by Gabriele Brandstetter, Gerko Egert and Sabine Zubarik DE GRUYTER 21-08-1313:10:54 TITEL4 U188 Format:155x230mm Metaserver2(PKW) Release19.00xSOLAR31May13.1609onFriMay3117:09:48BST2013 ISBN978-3-11-029186-5 e-ISBN978-3-11-029204-6 LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData ACIPcatalogrecordforthisbookhasbeenappliedforattheLibraryofCongress. BibliographicinformationpublishedbytheDeutscheNationalbibliothek TheDeutscheNationalbibliothekliststhispublicationintheDeutscheNationalbibliografie; detailedbibliographicdataareavailableintheInternetathttp://dnb.dnb.de. ©2013WalterdeGruyterGmbH,Berlin/Boston CoverimagebyJean-MichelCima:Herses(unelenteintroduction), Choreography:BorisCharmatz,LeQuartz,Brest,France,1997 Printing:Hubert&Co.GmbH&Co.KG,Göttingen ♾Printedonacid-freepaper PrintedinGermany www.degruyter.com 21-08-1313:10:54 TITEL4 U188 Format:155x230mm Metaserver2(PKW) Release19.00xSOLAR31May13.1609onFriMay3117:09:48BST2013 Table of Contents Introduction Touching and Being Touched Motion, Emotion, and Modes of Contact 3 I Touch Jean-Luc Nancy Rühren, Berühren, Aufruhr Stirring, Stirring up, Uprising 13 Niklaus Largier Figure, Plasticity, Affect 23 Erin Manning and Brian Massumi Just Like That William Forsythe – Between Movement and Language 35 Gerko Egert Movements of Touch in MAYBE FOREVER 63 Katherine Mezur Cold Burn (Teion Yakedo) On Touch in Contemporary Japanese Performance 83 Krassimira Kruschkova The Fault Lines of Touching 105 II Kinesthesia Mark Paterson On ‘Inner Touch’ and the Moving Body Aisthêsis, Kinaesthesis, and Aesthetics 115 Hilge Landweer Choreographies With and Without a Choreographer Intuitiveand Intentional Corporeal Interactions 133 VI TableofContents Gabriele Brandstetter “Listening” Kinesthetic Awareness in Contemporary Dance 163 Corinne Jola Do You Feel the Same Way Too? 181 Dee Reynolds Empathy, Contagion and Affect The Role of Kinesthesia in Watching Dance 211 III Empathy Marie-Luise Angerer Affective Modulations in Politics, Theory and Art 235 Robin Curtis Is the Movement of the Filmic Image a Sign of Vitality? 249 Ann Cooper Albright Feeling In and Out Contact Improvisation and the Politics of Empathy 263 Sabine Zubarik “Touch Me If You Can” The Practice of Close Embraceas a Facilitator of Kinesthetic Empathy in Argentine Tango 275 Kornilia Chatzimasoura Lost and Found in Interpretation Senses and Emotions in Contexts of Argentine Tango 293 Sonia Abadi Dancing Tango The Weave of an Emotional, Corporal and Social Network 309 Notes on Contributors 319 Introduction Touching and Being Touched Motion, Emotion, and Modes of Contact “RührenundBerühren,”“Touchingandbeingtouched”–thiscomplexsemantic fieldwillbe thethematicfocusofthe collectionofessayspresentedin thisvol- ume.¹ As a form of both haptic and affective contact,the act of touching is not merely a physical gesture or a pragmatic action. Touch constitutes a complex form of connection in which the relationship between the one touching and the one being touched is almost never clearly defined. The essays collected in this volume discuss acts of touching and being touched from a twofold perspective: as the movement and touching of the bodyandasaformofbeingmovedandtouchedemotionally.Whatkindsofre- lationships do weestablishwith one another through touching? Howcan spec- tatorsbetouchedbyadanceormusicperformanceorwhenwatchingafilm?In whatwayaretheseformsandpracticesoftouchrelatedtotheevocationoffeel- ing?Andhowcanwedescribethecontactandcommunicationbetweendancers, or between performers and their audience? Touch is a fundamental element of dance. The (time) forms and contact zones of physicaltouch are a means of expression of both the dancers’ self-ref- erence and their interaction. Liberties and limits, options and taboos of touch give us insight into the aesthesis of different forms of dance, their dynamics and communicative structure, as well as into the production and regulation of affects. However the configurations of touch in the interaction of touching and being touched are as different andvaried as the practices of dance themselves. They reflect historical and cultural differences in the understanding of how touchhappens,whichfeelingsitproducesandconveys,andwhichestheticcon- ceptsandcommunicativerulesitexpresses.Anessentialformoftouchindance isthe seizingof thepartner’shands.² The forminwhich this happensreveals a lotaboutthecontactrulesofproximityanddistanceinagivensociety,therev- erential gesture of seizing the partner’s hands and bowing in courtly dance, or the different ways of forming a circle or chain by seizing each other’s hands – as they can be observed in folk as well as in stage dances. Different rules of touch apply to artistic dance for example 19th-century classical ballet, where  Theproject“RührenundBerühren–movereimTanz”(AffectingandTouching–moverein Dance)wasdirectedbyProf.Dr.GabrieleBrandstetteratFreieUniversitätBerlin(2008–2012), withinthescopeoftheclusterofexcellenceLanguagesofEmotion.  Cf.Nordera,Martina,“Prendreparlamain,”in:MarieGlon/IsabelleLaunay(ed.),Histoiresde gestes.OuvragecollectifsousladirectiondeMarieGlonetIsabelleLaunay,Paris2012,165–180. 4 Introduction the touch between the dancers forms part of the esthetics of the performance: ease,theillusionofweightlessness,andthefloatingeleganceofmovementcon- stitute the ideals of ballet. In ordertoachieve these effects,specific techniques of movement are employed which control the body’s balance and orientation. Withrelationtotouch,thisentailsforexampleminimalfloorcontact,theballe- rina’s toe dance.The contact of male and female dancers in the pas de deux is dominatedbyformsoftouchthatconveytheimpressionoflight,floatingmove- mentswhenholding,supporting,orliftingthepartner.Aninterestingtensionbe- tweenthehapticinteractionofthedancersandtheemotionalbeingtouchedof the spectators mayderive from the esthetic principle of dissimulation: the rela- tivelymechanicalformsofcontactinthepasdedeuxconcealtheirtechnicalna- tureinthemasterlygameofseemingly“light,”fleetingandaffectivegesturesof touch,thus conveying a“feeling” that appeals to the spectators’ empathy. Not only courtly dance and ballet, but also the different practices of social dance,culturallyandsociallyvaried,usenumerousgesturesoftouch.Argentine tangoinparticularcannotbeconceivedofwithouttouch–itbeginswithanem- bracethateverythingthatfollowsdependson.Duetothestrongimprovisational characteroftango,touchhastobeunderstoodasanonverbalformoftransmis- sion and communication of the leading dancer and the partner who follows. Through the different forms of touch, the partners communicate with each other, kinesthetically aligning all parameters of their movement: dynamics, di- rection, intensity,orientation of the body axes, and floor contact. As these seem to be mostly prosaic, physical techniques,we may ask our- selveswhy Argentine tango in particularis consideredtobe ahighlyemotional dance and the quintessential expression of passion and erotic desire. At which pointandhowexactlydoemotionscomeintoplay?Aretheemotionsthatspec- tatorsperceiveeven relevant to the dancers,or arethe dancersconfrontedwith completely different feelings, less “encompassing” and “psycho-logical,” and concerninginsteadthe“smaller”physicalrealities?³Itseemsthatapleasantem- bracewill inevitablyproducepositive feelings such as harmony, sympathy, and joy,astheseareconveyedautomaticallywiththetouchitself.Feelingsofoppres- sion,anger,self-doubt,orpowercandevelopwhentouchismoreofahindrance thanahelptothedancers’communication,i.e.,whenitisnotwell-coordinated  Theabove-mentionedresearchproject“BerührenundRühren:movereimTanz”(cf.n.1)dealt with these matters, looking at various aspects of the problem.The researchers conducted in- dividual and group interviews as well as questionnaire surveys, and organized experimental workshopsthattheyobservedandparticipatedin,inordertoanalyzedifferentstatesofmind (e.g.,grief), states of transmission and perception (e.g., flow), and situations of touch (e.g., closeness,embrace).