Eros Mimesis Poiesis In the Beginning Was Dance

Eros, Mimesis, Poiesis: In the Beginning Was Dance. . . Verum Factum

The Republic Book III, 401 b-403 C Education in dance and Mousike • There are two reasons why Mousike (the realm of song and dance) is so important. Firstly because rhythm and harmony penetrate more deeply into the inner soul than anything else…they make a person graceful…. And when rationality does make its appearance, wont the person who has been brought up in this way recognize it because of its familiarity, and be particularly delighted by it?

Book III, 410 e-412 a Education in Mousike What about a person who puts a lot of effort into his physical training, but has nothing to do with the Mousike or philosophy? … Someone like this becomes an enemy of rational argument, and an enemy of music, and literature. He abandons any attempt at persuasion using rational argument. He lives his life in ignorance and stupidity, without grace and rhythm….

Graham Pont: Plato’s Philosophy of Dance • …The course of studies was meant to introduce the students to a philosophical world view in which the mathematics of music and dance emerge as the key to understanding the Kosmos or universal system. • … The harmony of the Kosmos became a system of mathematical ratios which, they believed, was found in the structure of the musical scale as well as the entire world-system. This universal harmony came to be formulated as the analogy of Macrocosm and Microcosm.

Plato, Epinomis • “What fairer spectacle is there for a man the face of day, from which he can then pass…. To the view of night, where all will appear so different? Now as Uranus never ceases rolling all these objects round, day after day, and night after night, neither does he ever cease teaching men the lore of one and two. ” • Mimesis: “Imitation” gives us rhythm and thus numbers

What does Love have to do with it? Symposium: Speeches on Eros • Phaedrus: Ennobles, resides in the lover not beloved. • Pausanias: heavenly and common love. • The doctor: Love promotes order and harmony • Aristophones: Looking for your half to feel whole • Agathon: Love is young and beautiful

• • Diotema’s Lesson on the nature of Eros hybrid being: Child of Penia and Porros It is needy, and it is enterprising/resourceful, as is a philosopher It desires beauty, because it does not have it, and wants to possess it For eternity. Love is love of immortality. We want the things we love for ever.

What is Eros for? • It moves us towards the beautiful. • We create and procreate only in beauty. • Language (logos and dance) itself contains Eros, as it is a longing for completion, for clarity and beauty. • We become god-like and immortal in creativity • NOT all movement is Erotic. Following Instruction is mechanical. • So, Is it better to be the lover or loved?

Friedrich Nietzsche [KNEE-chay] • 1844– 1900: philologist, philosopher, composer, poet • befriended composer Richard Wagner • 1869 professor of classical philology in Basel • 1879 resigned due to health reasons • 1889 mental collapse

The Birth of Tragedy from the Spirit of Music (1872) • his first book • What kind of dance did Plato leave out? • Dionysiac barbarians

Dionysus wine, earth. Dionysus nature, the wilderness intoxicated reality the group sensuality excess cruelty, cries of horror chaos music, dance; tragedy death

Apollo

Dionysus Apollo wine, earth sun nature, the wilderness culture, the city intoxicated reality dream-world, appearance the group the individual sensuality intellect excess moderation, restraint cruelty, cries of horror beauty, joy chaos art, order, structure music, dance; tragedy sculpture; epic death illusion

reconciliation of Dionysus and Apollo • Olympian gods: neither Titans nor ascetics: serenity • Greek tragedy: combines Dionysian insight into the horror of existence (Chorus: music, rhythm) with the Apollonian instinct for beauty (protagonist: words) => emphasis on suffering, not action; the will to live

Nietzsche on dance/tragedy • poiesis: a look into the abyss of horror and death • eros: an excess of Dionysian sensuality • mimesis: a group ritual, allowing us to cope