The Sober Bacchae: Dance as Phenomenal Limitation in Nietzsche

This essay seeks to dispel entrenched critical opinion regarding dance across Nietzsche's writings as representative of Dionysian intoxication alone. Taking as its prompt the riposte of Alain Badiou, 'Nietzsche is miles away from any doctrine of dance as a primitive ecstasy' and 'dance is in no way the liberated bodily impulse, the wild energy of the body', the essay uncovers the ties between dance and Apollo in the Nietzschean theory of art while qualifying dance's relation to Dionysus. Primarily through an analysis of The Dionysiac World View and The Birth of Tragedy, the essay seeks to illuminate enigmatic statements about dance in Nietzsche ('in dance the greatest strength is only potential, although it is betrayed by the suppleness of movement' and 'dance is the preservation of orderly measure'). It does this through an elucidation of the specific function of dance in Nietzsche's interpretation of classical Greece; via an assessment of the difficulties associated with the Nietzschean understanding of the bacchanal; and lastly through an analysis of Nietzsche's characterization of dance as a symbol. The essay culminates in a discussion of dance's ties to Nietzschean life affirmation; here the themes of physico-phenomenal existence, joy and illusion in Nietzsche are surveyed.