Hannah Grimes
Aesthetics of the Dance
Dance allows participants to find communion in a living, active center where neither the “I” nor “you” dominates over the other. Unity and connection are achieved with other human beings who then participate in world-making by representing the rhythm that is discovered. Others are drawn into the movement, unconscious at least for a moment of the differences between them.
Van der Leeuw writes, “This is what makes the dance as an art so broad and inclusive: the boundaries of the body and the soul open, and whoever dances feels how boundary after boundary falls away” (73).
This photograph captured a spontaneous dance that began among a group of refugees in Brussels, Beligum. The image of these individuals holding each others’ hands and shoulders and moving together to the rhythm of the music demonstrates van der Leeuw’s concept of freedom from boundaries of the body and soul. This collective action offered a way for this group to embrace each other and participate in unity and movement.
Van der Leeuw, Gerardus. Sacred & Profane Beauty: The Holy in Art. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006.
No comments:
Post a Comment