Desire vs Biopower: Dance Revolution of the Twentieth Century

Abstract

The article deals with the dance revolution of the twentieth century - the emergence of "new dance” in which desire is produced, and not simply represented. Contemporary dance places the emphasis on spontaneity, the autonomous functioning of the body, and improvisation. There are at least two basic conceptions of desire in philosophy: the first is mimetic desire of the other (longing for a recognition from the other) and bodily desire (which corresponds to libido in psychoanalysis). The first conception had been proposed by Hegel and developed by A. Kojève and René Girard, the second - by Nietzsche and later by J. Deleuse and F. Guattari. Some scholars place their hopes in bodily desire (and corporeality in general) for putting resistance to the repressive biopower. The affirmative conception of desire critiques therefore Michel Foucault's theory of biopower and biopolitics. In the article, it is suggested that contemporary dance is a mechanism of producing desire, in the positive, affirmative meaning of the term. Dance can be considered literally a "machine of desire”: it makes the body to move awakening its energies, enhancing vitality and triggering emotions. The production of desire happens in the viewer as well as in the dancer. The spectator perceives movement through kinaesthetic empathy, a direct bodily imitation of the dancer's movement. The article presents the cases of Isadora Duncan, the founder of "free”, or "early modern dance”, and of Yvonne Rainer, a postmodern dancer and the author of the "No Manifesto”. Both performers reformulated dance and movement as a value in itself and a machine for both representing and creating desire.