A Measured Pace: Toward a Philosophical Understanding of the Arts of Dance

Susan Free teaches movement in the drama program at the University of
Toronto.

In his second book on the philosophy of dance, Sparshott works through
many issues concerning dance as an art: How are dances classified?
Recorded? Understood? Described? What is the relation of dance to music?
To its audience? To the body? These and many more questions are examined
in a manner that is encyclopedic in scope and almost mathematical in its
search for formulae. Sparshott takes what we already know about dance
and attempts to uncover underlying logical systems. His conclusions may
seem remote from the art of dance itself but demonstrate, for anyone who
doubts it, that dance is a subject worthy of serious philosophy.

Fortunately, Sparshott’s writing style is not overly academic; in
fact it is at times off-hand and even playful. Nevertheless, this is
scholarly work, and one that is rather heavy-going. Sparshott does not
think like a dancer—his is an outsider’s view. But his “stranger
in a strange land” perspective provides a welcome alternative from the
norm of dance writing.