Nouvelles de danse n° 30 : Danse et politique

“Taking a strong, free stance, defending artistic and human values, bringing to the fore an aesthetic project that, by definition, first and foremost touches the senses seems, in these turbulent times, an almost untenable proposition. And yet, if we question the place and role of the artist in society, it is certainly a solid and committed attitude that we would like to see her/him adopt.

A radical attitude, no doubt, since this is the only one that will enable her/him to explore new possibilities, to take a proposal to its logical conclusion, to experience in action a sensation, a point of view, a vision, to touch the frontiers of unknown territories. That’s where it belongs, in this perceptive displacement that can give us a different glimpse of reality, that brings out its poetics, that reveals its buried or, as Laurence Louppe puts it, inactivated forces. This vitality is capable of driving a movement that, in its own way, also acts on the social and political body. Is this the case with dance? Can we detect in it a capacity to influence social organization structures, to invent new ways of living?”

Excerpt from the editorial note by Patricia Kuypers.

This issue also includes a tribute to Fernand Schirren.