TRANSMISSION: a South African choreographer uses language to reflect on the gendered 'embodiment' of writing with and on the body

Abstract

This article takes on Maurice Merleau-Ponty's (1962) notion of the body as the prime means of knowing the world to argue for the linguistic value of dance and contemporary choreography as text — text written on and with the body. This article argues for dance and the act of choreography being viewed as language and, as such, communication. The physical body is understood to be a text written by race, class and gender and as such it is a very powerful tool for challenging social and political discourses around repression especially in the context of South Africa. Arguing for the notion of the embodied 'I', this article concludes by offering an analysis of the author's own work 'TRANSMISSION: Mother to Child' (2005). This is done as an act of one text, written on the body, being answered by another academic text of words and letters, responding to the constructions and play of knowledge and power. The article challenges the notion of critical distance in authorship and argues that all writing and linguistic meaning is written from a body and with a body, and that for feminism this entails a profoundly gendered understanding of the world.