Theologies of Modern Dance

• Applicant: Dr. Alexander Harry Schwan
• Subject Area: Theatre and Media Studies
• Term: since 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 545038446

“Theologies of Modern Dance” is a three-year habilitation project in critical dance studies hosted at Freie Universiät Berlin that explores implicit theological arguments in dance works and dance aesthetics from the first part of the 20th century. Based on archival research in Europe, the United States, and Australia, the project includes a 2-day international workshop and a public discussion. The main outcome is a book publication with Oxford University Press (Oxford Studies in Dance Theory Series). In this monograph, I will uncover how various concepts of religiousness – Jewish, Christian, and alternative-religious ideas – were realised specifically through modern dance aesthetics. My goal is to prove that the history and aesthetics of modern dance can only be properly understood when their religious charge is taken into account. The beginnings of modern dance in Central Europe and Northern America were particularly rich in implied religiosity and embodied theological arguments. In the first decades of the 20th century, particularly, many of the protagonists of modern dance understood dance movement in deeply religious terms. While escaping the narrow boundaries of institutionalised religion on one hand, they developed a new religion of dance on the other. Consequently, religiousness in modern dance was a phenomenon with a hybrid character. Rather than referring solely to institutionalised and established religions or to a single theology, modern dancers created their own concepts for how dance could be used to transcend the factual and explore spiritual realms. They combined theological arguments from various religious traditions, re-interpreting and sometimes distorting them to create a multiplicity of danced theologies. Primarily considered a research project in critical dance studies, “Theologies of Modern Dance” analyses historical sources as well as the historical discourse surrounding religiousness in modern dance, interpreting both with the help of contemporary theory. Which theological arguments (theologoumena) were negotiated in textual testimonies of the choreographers and by their historical contemporaries? Which theologoumena did they deliberately avoid and why? Which textual phrases, expressions, and terminology did modern dancers and historic writers borrow from religious discourses and how did they alter this existing material? Which new and possibly heretic or heterodox language material did they invent to frame modern dance as religious? The main outcome of the project is the publication of the monograph “Theologies of Modern Dance” with Oxford University Press. This monograph will have a significant impact on international dance studies and its adjacent fields of theology, religious studies, and art history, as well as literary and cultural studies. “Theologies of Modern Dance” will profoundly change our understanding of 20th century dance history.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants