Dancefilm: Choreography and the Moving Image, by Erin Brannigan | Choreographing Empathy: Kinesthesia in Performance, by Susan Leigh Foster | Review By Amanda Card

Abstract

Dancefilm: Choreography and the Moving Image, by Erin Brannigan (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011)

Choreographing Empathy: Kinesthesia in Performance, by Susan Leigh Foster (New York: Routledge, 2011)

If it is possible to liken these two books to each other, beyond their obvious thematic correlation as texts within the broad field of dance studies, one could say they are both about words: their creation, their definition, their history and their meaning-making in relation to our reception and understanding of motion. Both books are by authors interested in a contemporary relationship between dancing (or organised movement), the use and reworking of theories through which to explore those actions, and the exploration and invention of words and terms that help us understand what might be going on when people make, watch and talk about people moving – on and off the screen.