Can Arnold Berleant’s Aesthetics of Engagement Be Applied to Conceptual Dance?

Abstract

The central aim of the article is to reflect on whether—and if so, how—Arnold Berleant’s theory of aesthetic engagement can be applied to works described with the controversial term ‘conceptual dance’, in other words, to works that undermine the determinants of a dance performance. Berleant stresses the open nature of his project of aesthetic experience; however, he does not describe works that seek to destabilize perception in dance performances. With this in mind, the concepts of aesthetics and critical aesthetics are considered as indicating a possible direction for the further development of the ideas outlined in Berleant’s Sense and Sensibility . This extension of Berleant’s thought enables the problem of destabilization of perception to be grasped, and encompasses the issues of criticality and the political, which animate the performances of Xavier Le Roy, Jan Ritsema and Jonathan Burrows.