Abstract

The obvious link one can make between dance and cinema is that both disciplines involve movement. Movement is what a dancing body does and is what the filmed image shows. The dancing body and the cinematic image have more in common than one might imagine at first. In a traditional engagement with the intersection of dance and cinema, the focus had tended to be on the representation of the dancing image on the celluloid. In this case, the cinematic image has a tendency to be interpreted as a backdrop for the dancing body. Yet, both dance and cinema are about more than representation. One way to move beyond representation is to turn to movement. To bring cinema and dance together is therefore to begin to address aspects of cinema that extend beyond narrative into abstraction. It is also to express the ways in which cinema is not simply a visual medium, but an overall affective experience. This thesis will explore the ways in which the dancing body and the moving image intersect. Inspired from the philosophy on movement, time and images of Henri Bergson and Gilles Deleuze, I want to propose that the fusion of the cinematic image with the dancing body is happening in immanence. Movement perceived in the virtual rather than in the actual, in this case, has to be considered. A relationship between the body in movement and duration is at stake here, in order to make visible on screen the invisible sensations perceived in the dancing body in movement.