Breaking away from and being grounded in Beirut : contemporary dancers in movement -

Abstract

The disorganized and individualist space of postwar Beirut exerts on inhabitants a new politics at the level of their bodies. My interest in movement of bodies through space leads me to examine bodily movements through contemporary dancers. Classically, anthropologists performed extensive research on the body and analyzed how bodies reflect society. On the other hand, dance scholars emphasize the movement of the body in dancers and foreground the life history of the dancers to understand their subjectivities. I conducted an ethnography, based on participant observation in contemporary dance workshops, interviews, and life histories. Research subjects included participants and conductors of contemporary dance workshops as well as the owners of the dance studios where workshops take place. I examined what dancers’ bodies leave behind to approach their new spaces and bodily practices. I argue that new subjectivities emerge from this space’s contrast to the city and working of mind-body relations to others differently.