What falls is a body. Laughing Hole by La Ribot, and the crisis of the vertical regime of dance

Abstract

This article explores "Laughing Hole," a creation by La Ribot, a dancer, choreographer, and visual artist. Positioned within the realm of "conceptual dance" ("konzepttanz"), "Laughing Hole" represents a hybrid form that combines elements of dance and performance. This work challenges the traditional "verticality regime" of classical dance by examining falling bodies as a deliberate strategy to deconstruct the idealized notion of what Adriana Cavarero refers to as "philosophus erectus," a concept that has historically influenced Western philosophical discourse since Plato's allegory of the cave. 

The concept of the "verticality regime" is evident in classical dance through choreography. This prescriptive system dictates how the body should move by emphasizing the importance of maintaining an upright posture and infusing it with a feeling of rising upward. In classical dance, experiencing verticality means feeling weightless and radiant and having bodies that surpass gravity and physical limitations. The normative body in classical dance refrains from complete embodiment. In "Laughing Hole," the performers' repeated collapsing to the ground subverts the entire disciplinary framework, resulting in a process of true embodiment and a tangible presence of the physical bodies involved.