Dance and the Dancer

THIS CONSIDERATION of dance and the dancer involves examination of the significance of performance in the perceived dance artefact. I shall focus firstly, but comparatively briefly, on what is necessary for the dancer in the performance of a given part and secondly, in greater depth, on the extent to which the dancer's capacity to see what is necessary affects the dance as created and thus as perceived. Finally I shall give attention to arguments which suggest that the dancer's capacity to see what is necessary for a given part is, in some measure, a matter of so-called 'kinaesthetic awareness ' and that such kinaesthetic awareness/experience is aesthetically relevant. * My interest in this topic has been aroused by the intensity of disagreement which it provokes, especially on the matter of the relative importance or unimportance of kinaesthetic awareness/experience. The most immediate disagreement, and perhaps the most ferocious, is between two groups of people in particular. For those people whose interest in dance is predominantly academic, especially for those whose interest stems from philosophica