A Somaesthetics of Performative Beauty

This book develops an original theory of performative beauty. Philosophical aesthetics has largely neglected one's own actions as a potential experience of the beautiful. Throughout the book, the author uses his own experiences of Argentine tango as a case study; one important incentive for social dancing is to have pleasurable and beautiful experiences. This book begins by investigating the methodological causes for why beauty in modernity has been seen to result only from contemplating external objects. It then builds a theory of performative beauty that incorporates findings from new phenomenology, neuroaesthetics, enactivism, and somaesthetics and that reassesses existing inquiries of beauty. The result is an account that identifies kinaesthetic awareness as the point of emergence of both theory and practice, of creation (poiesis) and perception (aisthesis), and of moving (agency) and being moved (reception). Performative beauty is the pleasure of being moved by the dance where the dancer feels both as a creative improvisor and as an integrated part of the activity itself. A Somaesthetics of Performative Beauty-Tangoing Desire and Nostalgia will appeal to scholars and advanced students working in aesthetics, dance studies, performance studies, and related fields of artistic research. Chapter 6 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

Falk Heinrich is a professor of participatory aesthetics and artistic research at Aalborg University, Denmark. Before joining academia, he worked as a theatre actor and director and installation artist. He studied dramaturgy and wrote his PhD on interactive digital installation art. He is the editor of The Journal of Somaesthetics.

1. Preface and Introduction 2. Preparing the Philosophical Dance Floor 3. Methodological Dances 4. Freedom and Poiesis 5. Promises and Grace 6. Eros and Objectivization 7. Selections and Unity (Sensus Communis) 8. Appendix: My Argentine Tango