B. Andrieu and C. Thomas (eds.), Entre les corps. Les pratiques émersiologiques aujourd’hui (cirque, marionnettes, performance et arts immersifs) - Theatre and Performance

French Literature Reviews - 2026

B. Andrieu and C. Thomas (eds.), Entre les corps. Les pratiques émersiologiques aujourd’hui (cirque, marionnettes, performance et arts immersifs)
Theatre and Performance

Reference: Bernard Andrieu and Cyril Thomas (eds.), Entre les corps. Les pratiques émersiologiques aujourd’hui (cirque, marionnettes, performance et arts immersifs), Actes du colloque des 7 et 8 octobre 2016 au Centre national des arts du cirque, Paris, l’Harmattan, « Mouvement des savoirs », 2017, 232 p.

Publisher's overview:
The performing arts engage the body in the creation of an intercorporeal aesthetic: direct interaction with the audience, exchange between partners, and the emergence of intimate sensations. Through the tactile contact of hands, bodies, and skin, invisible information is activated within the neural, hormonal, and cerebral networks. Thus, artists recognize one another through the projection of their bodily space—grounded in empathetic sensitivity, affective recognition, and motor resonance.

Table of contents:

  • Preface by Gérard Fasou, Cyril Thomas, and Marion Guyez,
  • Abstracts
  • Introduction: Between bodies, the interactivity of living beings, by Bernard Andrieu
  • Chapter 1: Among the three circus artists: intercorporeality within infracorporeality, by Bernard Andrieu
  • Chapter 2: Through the looking glass: utopian spaces, non-places, imaginary universes, by Anaïs Bernard
  • Chapter 3: Coordination and environmental perception in slacklining, by Lionel Chavaroche
  • Chapter 4: An intimate and hidden dialogue: from the body-image to the signifying body of the actor, by Erica Letailleur
  • Chapter 5: Of things and others: the puppet and the puppeteer, Merleau-Pontian perspectives, by Noémie Lorentz
  • Chapter 6: Studying interactions in gesture learning: the case of puppetry and circus arts, by Haruka Okui
  • Chapter 7: A sensory echography of Anna Halprin’s dance philosophy, by Terezinha Petrucia Da Nobrega
  • Chapter 8: Between the ropes: shibari as an emancipatory experience, by Claire Lahuerta
  • Chapter 9: The atmosphere of the body. Indetermination between artistic and scientific research, by Imme Bode, translated from French by Kirsty Belle
  • Chapter 10: A journey between bodies at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, by Pierre Philippe-Meden and Philippe Liotard
  • Chapter 11: Phia Ménard. Nothing new, but a fresh perspective, by Nathalia Kloos
  • Contents

The essays in this collection are grounded in the field of emersiology, a branch of study concerned with how internal, unconscious bodily sensations emerge into conscious awareness. This theoretical framework is closely linked to the phenomenological tradition, particularly the work of Maurice Merleau-Ponty, which examines how the body interacts with its environment and other subjects. According to the volume's overview, the performing arts engage the body in the creation of an intercorporeal aesthetic through direct interaction with the audience, exchange between partners, and the emergence of intimate sensations. Through tactile contact, invisible information is activated within neural, hormonal, and cerebral networks, allowing artists to recognize one another through the projection of their bodily space.

The volume contains chapters on circus arts, puppetry, slacklining, and shibari. These chapters cover topics such as gesture learning, environmental perception, the relationship between artistic and scientific research, and bodily practices at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The volume also includes chapters on choreographer Anna Halprin and performer Phia Ménard. Readers interested in performance studies, dance theory, and the cognitive dimensions of the performing arts may find this interdisciplinary approach relevant.