ABSTRACT

This chapter argues for more discipline in the use of 'dance' as a trope in criticism. Following a strand in dance studies which questions the undifferentiated application of dance as metaphor for the mobility of signification or gender, it reclaims a more elaborate vision of bodily movement. The chapter illustrates instances of this practice by looking at the work of two choreographers chosen for their engagement in highly original modes of discursive interaction with their own medium: William Forsythe and his choreographic tool Improvisation Technologies, and Thomas Lehmen and his conceptual choreography Schreibstück (Writing Piece). By opening up more productive views on dance as concept and as object of critical writing, the chapter aims to show that a critical analysis of the tropes of criticism is an essential part of the challenges and chances of in(ter)disciplinary theory. One aspect of interdisciplinary work in the humanities is certainly the inter-disciplinary character of theory itself.