Video Archives - Public Discussion with Roger Berkowitz and Bill Jones (2010)
08-14-2014Wednesday, December 1st, 2010: A Public Conversation - “The Life of the Mind and Floating the Tongue”
Participants:
- Bill T. Jones -- Co-founder of the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company.
- Roger Berkowitz -- Associate Professor of Political Studies and Human Rights at Bard College; Academic Director, Hannah Arendt Center for Politics and the Humanities
In a conversation following a performance of his movement art piece “Floating the Tongue” (performed by Bard faculty member and Member of the Bill T. Jones/Anie Zane Dance Company Leah Cox), Bill T. Jones sat down with Roger Berkowitz to discuss the Arendtian notion of thinking that he explores in his dance.
Jones defines dance as “movement of things in space and time,” which means that conversation is dance, a definition that he uses to highlight his inspiration in Arendt’s writings.
“Floating the Tongue” is meant to bring the internal conversation of thought out into the public eye. Jones wants to explore the thinking that never ceases--even while a performer is performing. “Is it really possible to show the internal landscape while actually performing?” he asks in response to Arendt’s claim that thinking only happens when we leave the world of appearances.
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Bill T. Jones[/caption]
Berkowitz adds that for Arendt, thinking is a private correspondence with the self, by which one engages with one’s other self and enacts a dialogue not unlike the classical conception of a dialogue between a person and a daemon, an inner spirit. For Arendt, there are certainly times when one can be unthinking; moreover, the times when one is truly thinking are invisible to the public. Jones diverges from Arendt on this: for him, thinking never stops. Even a performer, running through extremely rehearsed movements in front of a crowd, is always thinking, and this is what “Floating the Tongue” attempts to demonstrate.
The discussion then moves into Arendt’s idea that the modern world is one bereft of “bannisters,” the kinds of traditions and conceits of thought that proscribe certain ways of thinking. This is what Jones calls classicism. Berkowitz explains that for Arendt, this lack of bannisters makes the privacy of thinking so important. It is a complicated notion, and Arendt’s arguments against forced integration during the Little Rock case come up.
Jones disagrees with certain implications of Arendt’s arguments, and the discussion probes the meaning and value of privacy. It is a relatively short conversation, but one that picks up on threads which are vital to conversations on art, Arendt, and performance.
Summary by Dan Perlman
You can watch the performance of "Floating the Tongue" and the full conversation between Jones and Berkowitz below:
Bill T. Jones at Bard College: Floating the Tongue from Hannah Arendt Center on Vimeo.
Bill T. Jones and Roger Berkowitz: A Public Conversation from Hannah Arendt Center on Vimeo.
Bill T. Jones and Roger Berkowitz: Q&A from Hannah Arendt Center on Vimeo.