ABSTRACT
In this chapter I theorise notions of the ‘live’ in terms of the relationship between kinaesthetic empathy and the ongoing, invisible inscription of the spectator’s body. Drawing upon my choreographic practice-led research Woman=Music=Desire (2010), I explore the spectator’s body as a potential site of kinaesthetic transference reflecting upon notions of gestural reciprocity within the context of Western art music performance. Beginning from an observational process in which my own pianistic gestures were witnessed and subsequently re-enacted by dance participants, I consider this performer-toperformer relationship as a kind of ‘kinaesthetic audiencing’; that is, a process by which the spectator regards performance with special attention to the ways in which a particular type of sensory and perceptual exchange takes place within their bodies in a manner that actively informs their experiences of the material.
