Films, Recordings, and Screendance Works
The chapter begins by noting the significance of the development of audiovisual recording technology for how dance works are conceptualised. Distinctions between different types of dance film are drawn, building on typology developed by Noël Carroll. The chapter discusses ontological and epistemological issues raised by these different types of dance film and video. It argues against sceptical views of recording that maintain the unreliability and undesirability of restaging dance works from film as distinct from notation. And the chapter develops an argument in support of the view that dances can genuinely be seen or experienced through film, drawing on the transparency thesis elaborated by Kendall Walton. The question of what kinds of things screendances are is also addressed, in the context of the ontological positions already explored in the book.