Abstract
It is difficult to explain what makes some theatre dances boring, even if certain features seem to have a propensity to bore (excessive repetition or slowness, for example). A viewer’s cultural and psychological framework also plays a crucial role: aesthetic preferences and thresholds of endurance shape reactions, including reactions to dance that deliberately tests both. Moreover, an initial bored reaction can be transfigured into interest if the experience of boredom itself reveals something important about time and our relationship to it. This chapter explores the dynamics and limits of this shift, discussing the three levels of boredom identified by Martin Heidegger, the most profound of which (he argues) enables revelation of the fundamental nature of being. The chapter argues both that the situative nature of boredom in the theatre militates against recasting its metaphysical significance in Heideggerian vein, and that residual anxiety about finitude may ground justified resistance to the sustained reflection on duration demanded by some theatre dance.
Original language | English |
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Title of host publication | Performing Time |
Subtitle of host publication | Synchrony and temporal flow in music and dance |
Editors | Clemens Wöllner, Justin London |
Publisher | Oxford University Press |
Pages | 299-304 |
ISBN (Print) | 9780192896254 |
Publication status | Published - 20 Jul 2023 |