Breathing Back the History of German Modern Dance through the Horror Film Genre in Luca Guadagnino's Suspiria (2018)
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 11223529 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Wesley Lim (0000-0001-6797-9397, Australian National University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2023 |
| Volume | 55 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 81-97 |
| Publication date | 2023-04-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Dance Research Journal (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0149-7677 • E-ISSN: 1940-509X |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s0149767723000177 |
| OpenAlex | W4384569211 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
Director Luca Guadagnino's film Suspiria (2018) depicts the dancer Susie Bannion joining a dance academy secretly run by a coven of witches in Berlin during the German Autumn of 1977. This article analyzes how Mary Wigman's Hexentanz II , contemporary dance, and horror film practices inform Susie's neo-expressionist movement form, which is also steeped in the discourse surrounding the RAF (Red Army Faction), the West German far-left militant organization, and fascism. I argue that “historical breathing”—breaths and sighs—takes on a sensorial mode by surveying the past and current situation of the dance school. By inhaling, Susie embodies the dance Volk (1948) and can feel its vexed choreographic history—its occult origins and Ausdruckstanz practices. Furthermore, her dance futilely attempts to comes to terms with the Nazi past but inevitably replicates the violence of the RAF
Art · Art history · Dance · German · Literature · Militant · Movie theater · Nazism · Political science · Visual arts · Cinema and Media Studies · History · Italian Fascism and Post-war Society · Law · Visual Culture and Art Theory
| Citations per year | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2025 - 2025 (1) |
| Highly cited | No |