Pulsatile Choreography: Rhythm, (Dis)Enchantment, and Disimagination in Premodern Dance

This chapter explores sophisticated imaginative processes from a kinetic perspective. Specifically, I show how the pulsatile imaginary and disimagination offer nuanced theoretical frameworks for interpreting dance writing and dance iconography in premodernity. For my purposes, the pulsatile imaginary expresses and encodes the rhythmic, dynamic, and mobile texture of Western dance. I employ theologian Meister Eckhart’s (d. c. 1328) term “disimagination” to examine how the imagination activates the agency of the image through dispossession and de-representation (as opposed to likeness and mimesis). I examine the interrelationship between premodern dance, pulsatility, and disimagination within four distinct discussions: the rhythmic structure of dance (specifically the French carole), the aesthetic of enchantment in dance, the pulsatile in peasant dance, and disenchantment in early modern dance. This chapter shows how premodern dance—with its poetic, spiritual, and social valences—offers a unique opportunity to rethink the modalities of representation in European culture.