Between Dancing and Writing: The Practice of Religious Studies

Acknowledgements

vii Acknowledgements Faced with the task of acknowledging the people who have enabled the event of this book, I cannot help thinking about a quotation from Nietzsche’s Ecce Homo: “How could I fail to be grateful to my whole life?” This book is, in a sense, about my whole life. It is a living link between communities whose members meet in its pages—teachers, mentors, colleagues, and friends in the worlds of dance and religious studies. Preliminary movements towards this book began in my work with Mark C. Taylor and H. Gans Little at Williams College. In their classes, I first called upon dance as a resource for addressing postmodern critiques of onto-theology. I am grateful for their ongoing encouragement. In the course of graduate work, larger written gestures received invaluable support from Gordon Kaufman, Lawrence Sullivan, Margaret Miles, Sharon Welch, John Carman, Francis Fiorenza, Stanley Cavell, and Diane Apostolos-Cappadona. Along the way, my experience of dance deepened and developed in work with Sharron Rose, Marcus Schulkind, the Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance and its teachers, especially Maher Benham, Denise Vale, and Pearl Lang. The manuscript assumed its current shape during my year as a fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study in 2000-2001. I am deeply grateful to Director Rita Nakashima Brock for her visionary support of both my writing and dancing, as well as to the Office for the Arts at Harvard University and its Director of Dance, Elizabeth Bergmann. Under the auspices of a Fortieth Anniversary Fellowship from the Religion and Arts Initiative of the Center for the Study of World Religions, the manuscript received a final polish. Special thanks to Diana Eck, Alison Edwards, and the Center staff, as well as to my editor at Fordham, Helen Tartar, and the readers whose comments guided the process. The wisdom of friends and family has enriched the progress of this book every step of the way. I am indebted to Kathleen Skerrett, Colby Devitt, Deborah Abel, Sharron Rose, Miranda Shaw, Alexis McCrossen, Courtney Bickel Lamberth, and R. Marie Griffith. To my parents, Cynthia and Jack LaMothe, for always being there, to John LaMothe for the cover photograph, and to the students and colleagues at Harvard who have challenged my thinking, thank you. Finally, my life partner Geoff Gee, a musician, was the first person to read the manuscript in its entirety. His belief in the value of my writing and dancing is a “disconcerting miracle” I never fail to appreciate . My children, Jordan, Jessica, and Kyra, remind me constantly how vital it is to do what we can to envision better futures. I dedicate the book to this family who makes everything possible. viii Acknowledgements ...