Chapter 1 introduces a hypothetical construct called “dance’s resource-fullness”—a set of conjectured but unverifiable capacities dance might have that could be tapped for exchange either as commodity or as gift. These capacities consist of the ability to bring people into relation, to generate as well as expend energy, and to adapt to a wide range of contexts and needs. In support of these conjectures about dance, the chapter utilizes a methodology of list-making and draws upon diverse studies of dance including philosophical, sociological, anthropological, and neurophysiological inquiries. Dance’s capacity to bring people into relation is assessed in terms of the ways it summons participants, how it develops the space in which it occurs, and the types of subjecthood it constructs. Dance’s facility at generating energy is explained through recourse to theories of dance as play, as synchrony, as bodily becoming, as virtual power, and as mobilization. Dance’s facility at adapting to an array of contexts is demonstrated through the vast number of typologies of dance that have been proposed concerning its structure and function.
