Grace, body and conscience

Abstract

This article investigates the both elusive and allusive concept of grace or graciosity (Anmut), traditionally referred to dance and to the moving body of dancers. It analyses an inspiring text written by Heinrich von Kleist (1997) at the beginning of the XIXth century, named On the Marionette Theatre. This text is then articulated with some reflexions developed by the Portuguese philosopher José Gil (2001; 2002) on the body of the dancer, as well as with Henri Bergson’s (2001) discussions on mecanicity applied to the living body as a source of laughter. This exploration of Kleist’s theme of graciosity connected to the movements of dance leads us, two centuries after Kleist’s text, to new reflexions about the loss of a certain soul (delicious anachronical term) and of graciosity as correlated effects of a conscience more and more reflected in the spectacularized mirrors of image.