The essay analyses the connection between dance, religion and neurology, starting from the figure of Jane Avril, dancer at the Moulin Rouge, and the disease she was diagnosed with, “St Vitus’s dance”. It explores how nineteenth-century medicine, above all Jean-Martin Charcot at the Salpêtrière hospital, reinterpreted medieval iconographies of demonic possession by transforming them into clinical representations of hysteria. In this context, dance becomes a symbol of otherness and discomfort, oscillating between disease and cure.
Tronca, D. (In stampa/Attività in corso). From Salome to Jane Avril. Dancing Distress between Religion and Neurology. AM, 61, 1-24.
From Salome to Jane Avril. Dancing Distress between Religion and Neurology
Donatella Tronca
In corso di stampa
Abstract
The essay analyses the connection between dance, religion and neurology, starting from the figure of Jane Avril, dancer at the Moulin Rouge, and the disease she was diagnosed with, “St Vitus’s dance”. It explores how nineteenth-century medicine, above all Jean-Martin Charcot at the Salpêtrière hospital, reinterpreted medieval iconographies of demonic possession by transforming them into clinical representations of hysteria. In this context, dance becomes a symbol of otherness and discomfort, oscillating between disease and cure.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
