ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the role of the body-in-action in both learning and doing art. It introduces the theoretical framework, largely informed by phenomenological and ethnomethodological perspectives. Influenced by Husserl and Gurwitsch, the most comprehensive treatment of the phenomenology of the body has been offered by Merleau-Ponty. His view can be articulated in three interrelated arguments: the body is not an object, instead, one should consider the body-subject; the body's presence consists of its presence in the world, its being-in-the-world; and the body people experience is the body in action. The world being intercorporeal, the problem of action is inseparable from that of knowledge intersubjectivity, as well as from that of expression and communication. This is something clearly highlighted by Garfinkel's ethnomethodology, which is also influenced by Schutz. By paraphrasing Schutz on music, one could say that any dance piece is a meaningful context. Dance schools are systems of surveillance, supervision, repeated and repeatedly corrected body work.
