Philosophy of Dance and Philosophy of Bodybuilding. Mind and Soul in Bodily Practices and Disciplines
Episode
In this episode, @filosofia_della_danza Selena Pastorino (PhD) and myself discuss Selena’s last book on philosophy of dance. We start our chat by recalling the origin of our friendship and fun facts about us (she is the person who took my logo picture, the one in which I am sitting on the rock where Nietzsche allegedly had the intuition of the eternal return). Then Selena tells her own story: how she pursued and academic career and became a secondary school teacher; how she got into ballet as a kid; how she juggles work, ballet and private life; how she came out with the idea of writing a book on philosophy of dance. We then discuss the core of her book: the relationship between body and mind in learning new movements; the role of teachers; the importance of interpretation; the difference between rules and law. We also draw some parallels with bodybuilding in relation to: the role of mindfulness (mind-muscle connection), and the importance of considering the body as the end and not just a means, as opposed to sports and gymnastics.
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Time Stamps
0:00 Introduction and Fun Facts About Us
8:36 Selena’s Story
17:06 The Difficulty of Writing a Book on Pop Subjects: Is It Giving Rigidity to Mobility?
25:41 Do You Have To Be a Philosopher To Have Your Own Philosophy?
34:04 Selena’s Book. Body, Mind, Soul and Self-Becoming Through Dance
42:00 Experiencing the Alterity of Your Own Body: How to Recuperate a Lost Relationship Between Body and Mind in Dance and Movement
53:27 The Role of Teaching and Interpreting and Dance and Performance. Rules vs Law
1:03:38 Mind-Muscle Connection. Mindfulness and Mindful Training
1:07:25 The Body as The End and not Merely A Means: Dance and Bodybuilding vs Sports and Gymnastics
1:24:50 Conclusion
Literature Cited
Pastorino, Selena. 2019. Filosofia della danza. Genova: Il Melangolo
Pastorino, Selena. 2017. Prospettive dell’interpretazione. Nietzsche, l’ermeneutica e la scrittura in Al di là del bene e del male. Pisa. ETS
Further Resources