Retouching and Revisiting the Strangers Within: An Exploration Journey on the Waves of Meaning and Matter in Dance

Abstract

This article explores what (working with) matter can tell us that language cannot or does not completely tell, about becoming a sensual, sexual woman free to move smoothly in and with her body. It explores how (working with) matter can transform living in, with and through a body, and how it affects and is affected. The text is centred around “touchpoints,” that is, encounters through touch, as experienced by the first author as a dancer on wheels, and diffracted and narrated through poetry and images interwoven with theory. These encounters are seen as mo(ve)ments in a powerful agential assemblage that holds both danger and transformative possibilities, leading us to reimagine freedom as a river of sparring intensities.