Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Book cover

Dance and the Quality of Life pp 67–80Cite as

In the Shadow of Crisis: Dance and Meaning in the Anthropocene

  • Chapter
  • First Online:

  • 1011 Accesses

Part of the book series: Social Indicators Research Series ((SINS,volume 73))

Abstract

This chapter is a phenomenological exploration of dance as a mode of reflecting on and responding to environmental crisis. From 2015 to 2016, I engaged in a one-year, daily practice of dancing, photographing and removing trash from the Wissahickon Park, a woodland that stretches for several miles through northwest Philadelphia. During that time, my affective and spiritual connection to the park deepened, giving rise to a consideration of dance as an ethical practice with potential to renew and renegotiate human-nonhuman relations in the Anthropocene. In this account, I bring my emerging dance-based ethical inquiry into dialog with more-than-human philosophical frameworks proposed by Karen Barad and Shigenori Nagatomo.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD   109.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD   139.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Learn about institutional subscriptions

References

  • Abram, D. (1996). Spell of the sensuous: Perception and language in a more-than-human world. New York: Vintage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Abram, D. (2011). Becoming animal. New York: Vintage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ball, D. (2016, September 14). The new Anthropocene epoch has dawned, and it’s “very worrisome”. Retrieved from http://www.metronews.ca/news/vancouver/2016/09/14/new-anthropocene-epoch-has-already-dawned-warn-researchers.html

  • Barad, K. (2007). Meeting the universe halfway: Quantum physics and the entanglement of matter and meaning. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Bennett, J. (2010). Vibrant matter: A political ecology of things. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Berwyn, B. (2016, September 5). Far from turning a corner, global CO2 emissions still accelerating. InsideClimate News. Retrieved from https://insideclimatenews.org/news/19052016/global-co2-emissions-still-accelerating-noaa-greenhouse-gas-index

  • Biggers, J. (2015, August 28). Call it what it is: A global migration shift from climate, not a migrant or refugee crisis. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeff-biggers/call-it-what-it-is-a-glob_b_8056186.html

  • Bingham, R. (2015, December). In the shadow of crisis: Dance and meaning in the Anthropocene. Paper presented at the annual Eastwest Somatics Network Conference, Springdale, UT.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bingham, R. (2017). Improvising meaning in the age of humans. Doctoral dissertation, Temple University, Philadelphia.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bohm, D. (1980). Wholeness and the implicate order. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brown, C., & Toadvine, T. (Eds.). (2003). Eco-phenomenology: Back to the earth itself. Albany, NY: SUNY Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bruzina, R. (2004). Edmund Husserl and Eugen Fink. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Chakrabarty, D. (2015, December). The geophysical agency of humans and climate change. Retrieved from http://globalenergyinitiative.org/insights/161-climate-change-and-the-geophysical-agency-of-humans.html

  • Chödrön, P. (1994). Start where you are. Boston: Shambhala.

    Google Scholar 

  • Davis, H., & Turpin, E. (Eds.). (2015). Art in the Anthropocene. London: Open Humanities Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fraleigh, S. (2016). Butoh translations and the suffering of nature. Performance Research, 21(4), 61–71.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Galanter, M. (2009). Dance, ecology, and the deep world. An interview with Arawana Hayashi and Jennifer Monson at SEEDS. Contact Quarterly, 34(2), 20–25.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hay, D. (1994). Lamb at the altar: The story of a dance. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Heidegger, M. (1971). The origin of the work of art. Poetry, language, and thought (A. Hofstadter, Trans.). New York: Harper & Row.

    Google Scholar 

  • Heidegger, M. (2010). Being and time (J. Stambaugh, Trans.). Albany: SUNY Press. (Original work published 1927).

    Google Scholar 

  • Husserl, E. G. (2001). Logical investigations (D. Moran Ed.). London: Routledge. (Original work published 1900/1901).

    Google Scholar 

  • Kimmerer, R. W. (2014). Returning the gift. Minding Nature, 7(2), 18–24.

    Google Scholar 

  • Klein, N. (2012). This changes everything: Capitalism vs. the climate. New York: Simon & Schuster.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kloetzal, M. (2011). Site dance. Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • LaMothe, K. (2015). Why we dance: A philosophy of bodily becoming. New York: Columbia University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Lepecki, A. (2016). Singularities: Dance in the age of performance. New York: Routledge.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Macy, J. (2014, November 6). A wild love for the world [Interview]. Retrieved from www.onbeing.org/program/joanna-macy-a-wild-love-for-the-world/

  • Malm, A., & Hornberg, A. (2014). The geology of mankind? A critique of the Anthropocene narrative. The Anthropocene Review, 1(1), 62–69.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Modi, P. (2016). Exclusive interview with the director of Harvard’s Food Law and Policy Clinic. Retrieved from www.change.org

  • Monson, J. (2016). Artist statement. iLand. Retrieved from http://www.ilandart.org/artist-biography/

  • Moran, D. (2000). Introduction to phenomenology. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nagatomo, S. (1992). Attunement through the body. Albany, NY: SUNY Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nixon, R. (2011). Slow violence and the environmentalism of the poor. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Olsen, A. (2002). Body and earth. Middlebury, CT: Middlebury Bicentennial Series.

    Google Scholar 

  • Robin, L. (2016). How do people live in the Anthropocene? Geophysical Research Abstracts, 18. Retrieved from http://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EGU2016/EGU2016-3339.pdf

  • Scranton, R. (2015). Learning to die in the Anthropocene. San Francisco: City Lights.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sheets-Johnstone, M. (2011). The primacy of movement (2nd ed.). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Steffen, W., Crutzen, P. J., & McNeill, J. R. (2007). The Anthropocene: Are humans now overwhelming the great forces of nature? Ambio: A Journal of the Human Environment, 36(8), 614–621.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sullivan, R. (2012). The meadowlands: Wilderness adventures at the edge of a city. New York: Scribner. (Original work published 1998).

    Google Scholar 

  • Takenouchi, A. (2016). What is Jinen? Retrieved from http://www.jinen-butoh.com/top_e.html

  • Tippett, B. K. (Host). (2016, May 19). Kevin Kling: The losses and laughter we grow into. In B. K. Tippett (Producer), On being with Krista Tippett. Minneapolis, MN: KTPP.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tonino, L. (2015). David Hinton on the wisdom of ancient Chinese poets. The Sun, 469, 4–12.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vakoch, D. A., & Castrillón, F. (2014). Ecopsychology, phenomenology, and the environment: The experience of nature. New York: Springer.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • van Manen, M. (1997). Researching lived experience: Human science for an action sensitive pedagogy. New Palz, NY: SUNY Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yokobosky, M. (2000). Movement as installation: Eiko & Koma in conversation with Matthew Yokobosky. Performing Arts Journal, 64, 26–35.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    Robert Bingham

Authors
  1. Robert Bingham
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Robert Bingham .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Dance, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    Karen Bond

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2019 Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Bingham, R. (2019). In the Shadow of Crisis: Dance and Meaning in the Anthropocene. In: Bond, K. (eds) Dance and the Quality of Life. Social Indicators Research Series, vol 73. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-95699-2_4

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-95699-2_4

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-95698-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-95699-2

  • eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation