A Space with No Place (Straus and Ecstasy)
Oxford Scholarship Online June 22, 2017 Frédéric Pouillaude
Erwin Straus argues that dance belongs to smooth, acoustic space, which contrasts with the optical space of directed, purposeful movement. Music enables dance by creating a homogeneous, nebulous acoustic space where the directionality of praxis is obliterated. Optical space is described as historical, while acoustic space is presentic. Dance, as an extension of music, allows a presentic relation to space called ecstasy or becoming one, which is most apparent in dances that are not yet dances, such as children's dances, social dances, or primitive dances.