Introduction

Abstract

This book is about relations between bodies and space in dance and the role they play in constructing subjectivity. Why, at the beginning of the new millenium, are relationships between dance, space and subjectivity so important? The postmodern debates about ‘crises of subjectivity’, that were current at the turn of the twentieth century, raised questions about who ‘we’ are, and our relation to the world we live in. Although voiced increasingly sceptically now, these questions are still, it seems to me, just as pressing as ever. Postmodern dance contributes to these debates vitally and imaginatively, because it is constantly engaging and negotiating with body/space relations in immediate and challenging ways.¹ I use the oblique (/) here between ‘body’ and ‘space’ to indicate the conjunction of two concepts creating an interface. It allows the possibility of rethinking concepts or ideas normally seen as separated, as interconnected. Thinking things differently in this way is a key strategy employed throughout the book, often indicated by the use of the slash.