Ecrire la danse

Romanic Review, Jan-Mar 2000 by Gordon, Terri J

1. Stephane Mallarme, "Crayonne au Theatre," in (Euvres Completes, Bibliotheque de la Pleiade, eds. Henri Mondor and G. Jean-Aubry (Paris: Librairie Gallimard, 1945) 304.

2. Mallarme's famous formulation of dance as a "corporeal writing" was anticipated by Baudelaire and developed by Valery. In Baudelaire's La Fanfarlo (1847), the narrator recognizes the "sublime" nature of La Fanfarlo's art, heralding the dance as a sort of corporeal poetry, a "poesie avec des bras et des jambes" (Charles Baudelaire, La Fanfarlo, in CEuvres completes, vol. I, Bibliotheque de la Pleiade, ed. Claude Pichois (Paris: Gallimard, 1975) 573). Similarly, in Valery's Socratic dialogue, L'Ame et la danse (1925), the dancers speak with their hands and write with their feet: "Quelle vive et gracieuse introduction des plus parfaites pensees! ... Leurs mains parlent, et leur pieds semblent ecrire" (Paul Valery, L'Ame et la danse, in CEuvres, vol. II, ed. Jean Hytier (Paris: Gallimard, 1960) 151-52).

3. Mallarme, "Crayonne au Theatre," 304.