A Dancer in the Mirror

A Dancer in the Mirror: Body Identity and Body Motion in Danza Española Rebeca Tania Mateos Morante Doctorate of Philosophy Irish World Academy of Music and Dance University of Limerick Supervisor: Dr. Catherine E. Foley Co-Supervisors: Prof. José Miguel Marinas Herreras and Dr. Mats Melin Submitted to the University of Limerick March 2020 A Dancer in the Mirror: Body Identity and Body Motion in Danza Española Rebeca Tania Mateos Morante Abstract This thesis is grounded in ethnochoreology and incorporates a psychoanalytical understanding of body identity and a phenomenological understanding of body motion. What is investigated is a professional Danza Española dancer’s relationship with the reflected image inside the mirror to meet with the demands of this formalised dance genre. Accordingly, my primary research question is: Can the mirror ultimately sustain fundamental aspects of a dancer’s body identity and body motion wherein the codification of dance practice is based on a primarily visual above proprioceptive sense of corporeal awareness and agency? Initially, I position the Danza Española genre within a broader historical reading of the sociocultural interdependence that developed between both the artefact of inquiry (the mirror) and subject of inquiry (European-originated formalised dance practice) climaxing in what I term the primacy of gaze during the height of the Baroque period. Subsequently, upon tracing the elaborate cross-influences found within the principal four forms of the Danza Española genre itself, I consider the contemporary complexity inherent in a dancer’s identity as embodied in motion in front of the mirror. Literature in psychoanalysis (Lacan 1977) and phenomenology (Fuchs 2005) support both ethnographic (Spradley 1979) and autoethnographic (Chang 2008; Foley 2013) analyses to better comprehend a relationship that is very much defined by the convergence of the two histories – that of the artefact (the mirror) and that of the dance practice (Danza Española). Building upon the historical resources, through literature review and ethnographic interviews, this thesis illustrates how modern Danza Española as inculcated throughout the conservatory system and professional industry in Spain foments a reliance on mirror use during dance transmission and assimilation. Accordingly, in developing the interdisciplinary approach outlined above, I examine and evaluate the resulting dependency on the mirror image that this practice might instil. Within the discipline of ethnochoreology, the body is considered a vehicle of embodiment and expression of sociocultural significance (Foley 2013; Wulff 1998). Additionally, the body in psychoanalysis is considered a vehicle of expression for the unconscious (Dolto 2010; Freud 1953; Winnicott 1971). Significantly, the mirror is thus regarded as a central formative component in the configuration of one’s identifying with the body during infancy (Lacan 1977; Merleau-Ponty 2007). Using ethnographic and autoethnographic research, I examine the same formative experience of body identity as revisited within the Danza Española genre, where the creation and perpetuation of the professional dancing body is conducted predominantly in front of the mirror. Complementarily, the body in motion is defined within phenomenology as an empathetic mediator between subject and the world, projecting a virtual “as-if” structure of the corporeal schema that pre-empts corporeal events (Fuchs 2005). Likewise, as an insider practitioner to the field, I explore through autoethnographic research a dancing body in motion as conditioned by how an individual self-perception of the reflected body image aligns (or rather, almost) with a broader cultural projection of that same body in dance in its ideal form. Correspondingly, I illustrate how this ideal specular image “as-if” structure in action must be simulated by the dancer, resulting in the dancing body potentially becoming more mirror than flesh, sustained by the dancer’s gaze. Ultimately, my research findings conclude that the sight of the mirror image, wherein a Danza Española dancer’s identity can be formed and whereto that dancer’s motion may tend, might be the very site of fundamental aspects of body identity and body motion for some Danza Española dancers. ii Declaration This work has not been submitted in substance for any other degree or award at this or any other university or place of learning, nor is being submitted concurrently in candidature for any degree or other award. The University of Limerick Ethics Committee has granted permission for me to conduct the research herein, and all informants named have given their consent. Signed (candidate) Date: 24th March 2020 iii A Nóra y Eoghan Sin vuestro apoyo incondicional y vuestra paciencia esta tesis no hubiera sido posible. iv Acknowledgements I wish to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor Dr. Catherine E. Foley for her constructive criticism and direction throughout this research. Many thanks also to my co- supervisors Professor José Miguel Marinas de Herrera, for his uncompromising support and encouragement to undertake this thesis, and Dr. Mats Melin, for his advice and assistance throughout my time as a doctoral student at the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance [IWAMD]. Special thanks to all the staff at the IWAMD for accommodating all aspects of my research project and for invaluable assistance in reaching my goals and discovering new ones. Particularly Dr. Sandra Joyce, Dr. Orfhlaith Ní Bhriain, Dr. Niall Keegan, and Dr. Aileen Dillane. Thanks also to Patricia Crosbie for bringing me back to the mirror. Sincere thanks to Dr. Eoghan Neff for his tireless assistance with translations and editorial suggestions. Many thanks to all my students at the IWAMD who taught me so much about myself as a dancer. Thanks to all the staff at the University of Limerick library, especially those who facilitated my interlibrary loans. And to all the staff at the Faculty of Philosophy Library, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, the Biblioteca Nacional de España in Madrid, and Biblioteca del Conservatorio Superior María de Ávila, Madrid. v Endless thanks to all my interviewees from the Ballet Nacional de España, the Company Director, Antonio Najarro, África Paniagua, Azucena Huidobro, Carlos Vilán, Cristina Aguilera, Cristina Visús, Débora Martínez Cano, Esther Jurado Rodríguez, Maribel Gallardo, Miriam Mendoza, and Pedro Ramírez Rey. Very special thanks also to my dance masters and professional colleagues for incredibly insightful discussions: Carmen Orta, Elvira Andrés, Mariló Uguet, and Mayte Bajo. Thanks so much to Susana Merlo, Director of the Museo Mariemma for unwavering support from my very first visit. Thanks to Carmen Luzuriaga in particular for her generosity in permitting my access both to the depth of her invaluable first-hand knowledge on the modern history of Danza Española and to her personal photograph archive. Special thanks to my friend and dance colleague María del Puerto for accompanying me throughout this challenging journey back to the mirror. vi Contents Abstract ii Declaration iii Dedication iv Acknowledgements v List of Figures xi List of Appendices xii Chapter 1 Introduction: Sheets of Glass and Layers of Reflection 1 1.1 The Mirror Within and a Spiral of Understanding 6 1.2 Contextualising the Research Question 13 1.2 An Outline of the Thesis Chapters 16 Chapter 2 Which Dancer and What Mirror: Outlining the Research Methodology 19 and Reviewing the Literature 2.1 Methodology 19 2.1.1 Ethnography 20 2.1.2 Autoethnography 22 2.2 Literature Review 25 2.2.1 A History of Stylisation and Mirror Use in Dance 27 2.2.2 A Psychoanalysis of Body Identity in Dance 35 2.2.3 A Phenomenology of Body Motion in Dance 42 2.3 Chapter Summary 53 Chapter 3 Reflections on Histories: Danza Española, the Mirror, and European Formalised 55 Dance vii 3.1 The Mirror and European Formalised Dance: The Bearing of Danza 58 Española 3.1.1 The Historical Trappings of the Full-Body Glass Mirror 58 3.1.2 European Formalised Dance from the Court Halls to the 66 Theatre Stage 3.1.3 The Mirror in European Formalised Dance Practice 71 3.2 A School of Choreography: The Being of Danza Española 76 3.2.1 Toward a Definition of Danza Española 77 3.2.2 Early Stylisation in Danza Española 84 3.2.3 Modern Stylisation in Danza Española 92 3.3 An Ethnography of the Danza Española Experience 106 3.3.1 A Framing the Mirror of Danza Española 107 3.3.2 Meeting at the Mirrors of Danza Española 117 3.4 Chapter Summary 126 Chapter 4 Body Identity: A Psychoanalytical and Ethnographic Study of the Formation of 128 the Danza Española Dancer in Front of the Mirror 4.1 The Body and the Mirror 129 4.1.1 The Body in Freud’s Psychoanalysis 130 4.1.2 The Body in the Mirror: An Uncanny Reflection 135 4.1.3 Lacan’s Mirror Stage 139 4.1.4 Reflections Beyond the Looking-Glass 141 4.2 A Dancer in the Mirror 147 4.2.1 The Mirror Stage Revisited through the Formation of a 153 Dancing Body 4.2.2 A Dancer’s Identity in the Mirror 160 4.2.3 A Dancer’s Identity Outside the Mirror 166 viii 4.2.4 A Dancer’s Identity Lost to the Mirror 173 4.3 Chapter Summary 176 Chapter 5 Body Motion: A Phenomenological and Autoethnographic Study of Dance 179 Movement in Front of the Mirror in Danza Española 5.1 A Phenomenological View of the Body in Movement 180 5.1.1 The Body as Mediated Immediacy 182 5.1.2 The Body’s As-Structure 187 5.1.3 The Body’s As-If Structure 188 5.2 The Dancing Body in Motion 190 5.2.1 Finding the Dancer in the Mirror 191

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