1. Beauty: Aesthetics in Dance
Why do contemporary choreographers reject beauty?
Do they?

2. • What is beauty?
• The dancer - Physical attractiveness of dancers’ bodies.
• The dance - How do we create and perceive beauty in
choreography?
• Can dance be disgusting or is it forever doomed to
aestheticism? (I. Hagendoorn)
• The Human Hourglass (Video by Leo Burnett)
• Creative Task.
• Outlook: Moderated Discussion Week 9.

3. “Beauty is a characteristic of a person,
animal, place, object, or idea that provides
a perceptual experience of pleasure,
meaning, or satisfaction.”
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beauty (Retrieved 09/03/2010)

4. Modern Art is “kalliphobic”.
“Kalliphobia” after the Greek words for
beauty - “kalos” and fear - “phobos”.

5. "Beauty had disappeared not only
from the advanced art of the 1960’s
but from the advanced philosophy
of art of that decade as well.”
(Arthur C. Danto, 2003)

6. Marcel Duchamp, Fountain, 1917 Edward Munch, The Scream, 1893

7. Reaction against beauty in Modernism:
• “Expression” replaced beauty as being central
to art and aesthetics. (see Munch)
• “Counter-environment” = art had to be
designed in order to make visible what is
usually invisible about society. (see Duchamp)
• etc.

8. Weight gain product in 1885. Weight loss product 1977 - today.

10. A strong indicator of physical beauty is
"averageness," or "koinophilia." When
images of human faces are averaged
together to form a composite image,
they become progressively closer to
the "ideal" image and are perceived as
more attractive.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beauty (Retrieved 09/03/2010)

11. Koinophilia is a term [...] meaning that
when humans or animals seek a mate,
they prefer that mate not to have any
unusual, peculiar or deviant features.
Source; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koinophilia (Retrieved 09/03/2010)

12. “Contemporary dance [...] is
the collection of unusual bodies
and unusual movements
patterns.” (Gabriele Brandstetter)

13. “The determinants of female physical
attractiveness include those aspects that
display health and fitness for
reproduction and sustenance. These
include correlates of fertility such as
youth, waist-hip ratio, breast size, breast
symmetry, body mass proportion and
facial symmetry.”
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physical_attractiveness (Retrieved 09/03/2010)

14. • symmetry
• proportion
• harmony
• definitiveness

15. “The ballet career is caught up with
success and failure, where success is
often nothing more than a correct
body, where women’s bodies must
remain girl-like.” (Emilyn Claid, Seductive Ambiguity)

16. “The successful dancer became synonymous with
being the loved girl.” (Emilyn Claid, Seductive Ambiguity)

18. “Ballet dancers parade on the same metaphoric
catwalk as do models, pops stars, jazz dance
performers, beauty queens and the icons of
advertising and media. All are challenged on a
daily basis by the contradictions between their
real bodies and performed illusions. Upholding
the glamour of Western beauty often has tragic
consequences on the bodies of its protégés in
their efforts to sustain the purity of the
transcendent dream.” (Emilyn Claid, Seductive Ambiguity)

19. A Measure of Beauty:
M=O/C
M ‘Aesthetic Measure’ (or beauty)
O Order
C Complexity

20. http://advanceddancetheories.blogspot.com/

21. The Hourglass (Leo Burnett)
• Beautiful or ugly?
• Aesthetic or disgusting?
• Difference in aesthetic appreciation between
content and form?
• Could you imagine this to be a “disgusting” life
dance performances according to Ivar Hagendoorn?

22. • Choreograph a 32 count solo, which you would
consider to be “beautiful”.
• Choreograph a 32 count solo, which you would
consider to be “ugly”.
• Interweave the “ugly” material with the “beautiful”
material by alternating 4 counts of each.
• Present all 3 solos.
Note: Please form groups of two deciding on one dancer and one
choreographer.

23. http://advanceddancetheories.blogspot.com/