The guiding idea of this Workshop is that dance and philosophy are one. At first blush this may seem like a crazy thing to say, since dancers and philosophers seem to be such different sorts of people doing such different sorts of things. But it is not crazy at all, once we think more carefully about persons, bodies, mind and the organised activities of human living.
The workshop leader, Alva Noë, is a philosopher and a cognitive scientist. He is interested in the idea that consciousness is not something that happens in us, or to us, but that it is something we do or achieve, something we perform. Like everything we do, consciousness depends on the ways we are embodied and the ways we are embedded in a world (including a social world). We are persons, that is to say, organised living beings at home in nests of every more complicated organisations. Philosophy, and choreography – we will consider – are practices of reorganisation.
Most of the work of this workshop will take place in conversation. The workshop leader will also sometimes lecture. He is a professor and cannot help himself. But we will move a lot. We will move our mouths, our ideas, and yes, even our bodies. The workshop leader will ask for guidance and inspiration from the participants.
Among themes we will cover:
• What is a person? What is the relation between persons and living human bodies?
• What can neuroscience tell us about ourselves, about dance, about art? What would an adequate biology of human being look like?
• What is a score, and what is the relation between scoring and writing? What do we do when we try to write ourselves?
• What is performance? Do we ever take off our masks? Can we?
• What is composition?
• What do we see when we look at a dance?
• Why is talking so important?
• What do we see when we look at a person?
