Plato the Choreographer

Plato the Choreographer uncovers a previously unexplored dimension of Plato's thought---his deep and inventive engagement with choreography. This study examines major dialogues in which the philosopher envisioned expansive imaginary panoramas of moving bodies that allude to, critique, or radically reconfigure the dance culture of his time. From the soaring and collapsing soul-chariots of the Phaedrus to the Republic's spectacular finale in the Myth of Er, Plato's vivid depictions of kinetic activity offer his readers striking new ways of thinking about embodiment, consciousness, and the structure of the cosmos.Precisely because dance was a vital civic activity of paramount importance in ancient Greece, foregrounding Plato's choreographic imagination sharpens our sense of him as a perceptive cultural critic and often controversial political theorist. Nowhere is this more evident than in the Laws, his final and most overtly legislative dialogue, where he envisions the second-best city---utopian Magnesia---as a vast communal choral ensemble, structured and behaving in accordance with a lawgiver's strict precepts. The aesthetic, political, and cultural implications of such a vision receive sustained scrutiny and questioning throughout this study. Across these analyses, the founding figure of Western metaphysical philosophy emerges as a visionary artist of movement. His thought proves surprisingly relevant to experimental forms of choreography in the modern era.