ABSTRACT
The second chapter addresses the affective dimension of touch. By looking in detail at the performance Maybe Forever by Meg Stuart and Phillip Gehmacher, the chapter argues that affective relations of touch emerge precisely in the dancer’s movements. Their rhythms of proximity create an “affective attunement” (Stern), which is not yet contained in the categories of clear-cut emotions such as hate or fear. Touch is not a subjective expression of an inner feeling but an affective relation between the dancer’s bodies.
In a second step, the chapter examines two dominant emotional configurations in the analyzed performance: love and melancholy. Both configurations are created through simultaneity and overlapping of different dynamics of touch and do not contain a coherent message or expression. These configurations exist in form of rhythmic dynamics, which cut across the different bodies on stage as well as in the audience.
