ABSTRACT
The philosophical aesthetics of dance may be roughly characterized in three parts, each concerned centrally with dance as an artform, or with dances that are art works. First, it shares many issues with philosophical aesthetics in general: for instance, concern over the role of the intentions of the artist for understanding his/her art works recurs vis-à-vis choreographers, even if with a characteristic dance ‘twist’. Equally, commitments in general aesthetics will typically be replicated in the aesthetics of dance: for example, if one asserted the historical character of art (McFee 1992b), a similar assertion for dance would be expected. Issues of this sort will not be the focus here.
