Dance and Science in the Long Nineteenth Century

Lynn Matluck Brooks, the Arthur and Katherine Shadek Humanities Professor Emerita at Franklin & Marshall College, is the author or editor of many books, including John Durang: Man of the American Stage.Sariel Golomb is a lecturer in the Princeton Writing Program.Garth Grimball is the editor of ODC.dance.stories.Contributors: Johanna Pitetti-Heil Chantal Frankenbach Jane Desmond Christian Ducomb Claudia Jeschke Kélina Gotman Pallabi Chakravorty Andrea Harris Dick McCaw Stephen Ha Emily Coates Tiziana Leucci Elizabeth Claire Susan Cook Carrie Streeter Olivia Sabee Janice Ross Alexander H. Schwan Whitney Laemmli

“Against the claims of nineteenth-century practitioners that their science was increasingly empirical and factual, these essays offer new and compelling evidence—through sources focused on dance—that science was deeply informed by the complexities of the human body. Readers . . . will be rewarded with new insights and new sources to consider, whether their interest is in nineteenth-century science or in dance of that period.”—H-Net“The authors collectively argue that scientific epistemologies articulated a definition of the body that made its way into dance contexts. . . . Simultaneously, the authors show by example how one can use dance studies methodologies such as choreographic analysis or attention to the embodied encounter of spectatorship to challenge the articulations of the body we have inherited from the long nineteenth century.”—Dance Chronicle

• List of Figures ixAcknowledgments xiIntroduction: Meeting Points, Overlaps, Escapes 1 Lynn Matluck Brooks, in conversation with Sariel Golomb and Garth GrimballPart I. Learning How to Look: Regimes of Classification1. Venus in Pieces: Choreographing the Anatomical Body with Clemente Susini’s Venus de’ Medici 21Sariel Golomb2. Choreographies of Knowledge: Touch and Vision in Anatomical Looking; Response to “Venus in Pieces: Choreographing the Anatomical Body with Clemente Susini’s Venus de’ Medici” by Sariel Golomb 45Jane Desmond3. Science under the Surface: Victorian Science in the Ballet Ondine 50Steven Ha4. Phytology and Dance: The Impact of Plant Biology on Nineteenth- Century Flower Ballets 72Alexander H. Schwan5. New Sensations; Response to “Science under the Surface: Victorian Science in the Ballet Ondine” by Steven Ha and “Phytology and Dance: The Impact of Plant Biology on Nineteenth-Century Flower Ballets” by Alexander H. Schwan 94Whitney LaemmliPart II. Dancing Ideologies: Nation, Sexuality, Sciencing6. Dr. Louis Véron, Medical Philosophy, and Medical Practice at the Paris Opera 103Elizabeth Claire7. Imagination, Sensation, and Habits: Medical Rhetoric and Popular Literature in Perceptions of the Paris Opera; Response to “Dr. Louis Véron, Medical Philosophy, and Medical Practice at the Paris Opera” by Elizabeth Claire 128Olivia Sabee8. The Paradox of the “Subtle Body”: Dance, Tantra, and Science 132Pallabi Chakravorty9. Viewing Indian Dance across Time and Space; Response to “The Paradox of the ‘Subtle Body’: Dance, Tantra, and Science” by Pallabi Chakravorty 150Tiziana Leucci10. Exhibiting (Scientific) Grace: American Delsartism and Black Citizenship in the New South 155Carrie Streeter11. Interrupting Jim Crow; Response to “Exhibiting (Scientific) Grace: American Delsartism and Black Citizenship in the New South” by Carrie Streeter 180Susan C. CookPart III. Physical Cultures: Disciplining and Improving the Self12. The “Muscular Sense” and Therapeutic Modernism in the Eurhythmics of Émile Jaques-Dalcroze 184Andrea Harris13. Dualism in Jaques-Dalcroze’s Theory of Movement; Response to “The ‘Muscular Sense’ and Therapeutic Modernism in the Eurhythmics of Émile Jaques-Dalcroze” by Andrea Harris 208Dick McCaw14. From Animal Magnetism to Materialist Transcendentalism: Margaret Fuller on Fanny Elssler 212Johanna Pitetti-Heil15. Labor and Laboratory of Kinesic Interplay in Nineteenth-Century Dance Theory; Response to “From Animal Magnetism to Materialist Transcendentalism: Margaret Fuller on Fanny Elssler” by Johanna Pitetti-Heil 231Claudia Jeschke16. Hypnotic Dancing and the Science of Sleep and Dreams: The Controversial Case of Madeleine G. 236Chantal Frankenbach17. Ecstatic Fervors: Of Trance, Dance, and Self-Possession; Response to “Hypnotic Dancing and the Science of Sleep and Dreams: The Controversial Case of Madeleine G.” by Chantal Frankenbach 261Kélina Gotman18. The Depths from the Surface: Interlaced Histories of Technologies and Dance in the Nineteenth Century 264Janice Ross19. Movement-Machines: Reflecting New Technologies in Doing and Scoring Dancing; Response to “The Depths from the Surface: Interlaced Histories of Technologies and Dance in the Nineteenth Century” by Janice Ross 284Claudia JeschkePart IV. “Outro”20. Observing the Observers 291Emily Coates21. Querying the Cosmos; Response to “Observing the Observers” by Emily Coates 303Christian DuCombList of Contributors 307Index 315