Kinaesthetic Empathy, Ethics and Care: A Phenomenology of Dance

Kinaesthetic Empathy, Ethics and Care develops a philosophy of dance that highlights the psychological, aesthetic and ethical significance of dancer-viewer interaction in the moment of performance.

Leroy draws on phenomenology, psychoanalysis, dance studies and care ethics to analyse kinaesthetic empathy as a form of intersubjective performance. She shows how, in the contagion or interweaving between corporealities of dancer and viewer, each party supports or upholds the other in a process of mutual care. Dance movement involves a play with gravity which alleviates the weight of repressed desire and redefines the contours of the body-image, facilitating psychological self-repair. Through projection into the body of another, we can develop our independence and autonomy as subjects, even in the midst of relational being. Richly illustrated with theatre dance examples, Leroy’s argument develops a corporeal basis for ethics and reveals how a return to the moving body through dance helps lay the foundations for a more humane society.

This book will interest philosophers, dance researchers, care ethicists and care practitioners, as well as advanced students in these fields and general readers curious about the aesthetic and ethical potency of theatre dance.

Christine Leroy is a lecturer in philosophy, with a PhD in philosophy of art from Panthéon Sorbonne University (Paris I). She specialises in philosophy of the body and is a former dancer. Her publications include three monographs: La Phénoménologie (2018), Phénoménologie de la danse. De la chair à l’éthique (2021) of which this volume is the English translation, and Le Corps (2022). She also co-edited with Chiara Palermo the anthology Pesanteur et portance. Une éthique de la gravité (2022). Her work focuses on kinaesthetic empathy and the ethical dimension of experiences of gravity and movement in art and clinical practice.

Anna Pakes is a translator and researcher, specialising in philosophy of dance. Her authored publications have included Choreography Invisible: The Disappearing Work of Dance (2020) and the co-edited anthology Thinking through Dance: The philosophy of dance performance and practices (2013), as well as numerous articles and essays on a range of dance philosophical themes. Her translation work has included books by Frédéric Pouillaude and Noé Soulier, as well as essays for Paris 8 Danse in Translation. She has a background in dance practice, having trained at the Centre national de la danse contemporaine in Angers, France.