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Do Not Cross the Line—Dance as Political Protest in Christopher Winkler's The True Face

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 August 2016

Abstract

This paper discusses how the relationship of dance and political activity plays out in Christopher Winkler's 2013 choreography The True Face: Dance Is Not Enough (in German, Das Wahre Gesicht: Dance Is Not Enough), which won the Faust Preise award in choreography for 2014. Contrasting this kind of choreographed movement in proscenium space with André Lepecki's (2006) argument about stillness as protesting modernity's imperative to move, I ask, what is the political engagement of this dance, the subject of which is political dance or at least corporeal actions in politicized settings? This relates in particular to the role of locality (localization) in a work meant for the global marketplace of art dance and hence, the possible effect of performance in the local political scene. What goes unquestioned and is taken for granted in this series of representations of political protests in a work that asks, what is the capacity of dance to protest?

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Hanna Järvinen 2016 

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References

Works Cited

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