The CNDB Media Library’s April recommendation features two books by dance theorist André Lepecki and a presentation by him on April 21, from 3 to 5 p.m., as part of the ICCD 2026 conference. More information about the event can be found HERE.
Exhausting dance. Performance and the Politics of Movement//Routledge 2006
The translation of dance theorist André Lepecki’s exceptional book, even 20 years after its publication, is particularly important for the development of dance studies in Romania—a field that has received little attention—and serves to inform choreographers, dancers, and researchers in the performing arts.
In the book’s seven chapters, Lepecki develops his argument regarding the ontological connection between dance and movement, analyzing a series of performance works by choreographers and visual artists who transformed the contemporary dance scene in the early 1990s in Europe and the United States: Jérôme Bel (France), Juan Dominguez (Spain), Trisha Brown (USA), La Ribot (Spain), Xavier Le Roy (France-Germany), Vera Mantero (Portugal), Bruce Nauman (USA), and William Pope.L (USA). Through their dynamic and explicit dialogue with the performing arts, visual arts, and critical theory over the past thirty years, this new generation of choreographers challenges our understanding of dance by exhausting the concept of movement.
“The Act of Stillness shows how, in modernity, the dust of history can be stirred up to blur the artificial divisions between the sensory and the social, the somatic and the mnemonic, the linguistic and the corporeal, the mobile and the immobile. Historical dust is not merely a metaphor. Taken literally, it shows us how historical forces penetrate deep into the inner layers of the body: by settling within the body, the dust stiffens the smooth rotation of the wrists and joints, fixing the subject in ever-prescribed directions and steps, fixing movement within certain politics of time and place. Through the paradoxical act-of-stillness, experimental choreography examines the tension within the subject, the tension within the subjectivity subjected to the force of the historical dust settling within the body.” (André Lepecki)
The book is available for consultation at the CNDB Media Library and can also be purchased from the CNDB, Stere Popescu Hall, 80–82 Mărășești Boulevard. Price: 50 lei.
The senses in performance// Eds. Sally Banes și André Lepecki//Routledge//2007
The Senses in Performance examines the subtle workings of the human senses—including taste, touch, smell, and sight—across a diverse range of performances from Western and non-Western traditions, spanning from ritual to theater, from dance to interactive architecture, and from performance art to historical opera. With eighteen original essays by renowned scholars and artists, including Richard Schechner and Philip Zarrilli, the anthology spans a variety of disciplinary fields, from critical studies to performance studies, from food studies to ethnography, from drama to architecture.
“Sensory performances reveal histories—they propose practices, highlight certain materials, reflect social conditions, and employ techniques. And in each of these stages, a body is constructed—even if only for a moment—even if only for the duration of a single performance.” (Sally Banes and André Lepecki)
Find more information about the resources available at the CNDB Media Library HERE.