Dances with laws: from metaphor to methodology
Year: 2021
Type: article
Abstract: Though law in/and/as performance is a burgeoning area of scholarship, with scholars exploring the relation between theatre, music and law, there is substantially less attention paid to the possibilities of dancing the law. In this article, the author identifies three styles of legal dance – (1) dance as legal practice, (2) dance as legal resolution, and (3) dance as legal research – providing case studies of each from amongst contemporary dance practice. Drawing from this legal dance practice and a survey of the existing field of dance and law research, the author asserts then challenges some common dichotomies between dance and law, most predominant of which is the claim that dance is body oriented whereas law is word oriented. Arguing against this common dichotomy, as the curtains close, the author choreographs the beginnings of dance as an embodied jurisprudence – one that moves the discussion of dance and law from metaphor to methodology.
Source: Law and Humanities
Author: Sean Mulcahy
Institutions: La Trobe University, Monash University
Language: English
Topic: Law in Society and Culture
Subfield: Law
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W3137908085