The flesh of the world

Where are we to put the limit between the body and the world, since the world is flesh?

– Maurice Merleau-Ponty, The Visible and the Invisible

The work of the feet is of primary importance; the foot connects us to the earth, bringing our flesh into a sensuous relation with the world, bridging our inner or subjective world to the outer. Dance, drama, ritual all begin with this step, which is the initial point of re-membering and transformation for the butô dancer.

On 19th February I gave a workshop at the Occult Conference in Glastonbury, the material for which has developed out of my ongoing research into the body, and draws on the phenomenology of Maurice Merleau-Ponty, his notion of the ‘flesh of the world’ and the body as chiasm, as crossing – both touched and touching, seen and seeing. The workshop focussed specifically on the feet, standing, stepping and walking, developing sensitivity and awareness, of self and environment, through movement.

a practical study of the sole of the foot would be interesting ... it is a major part of the body, because it is one of the meanings of the Chinese characters designating butô. Putting one’s foot down is not easy. Personally I try my best on stage in order to feel my foot soles and to grasp the relationship with the audience through this only part of me that has a real contact with the stage.

– Carlotta Ikeda, from Laurencine Lot's Carlotta Ikeda: Danse Butô et au-delà