In the contemporary era, the dance arts no longer adhere to a representational mode. A work is not a carrier of a story, and the dancers act out the existence, rather than represent characters and situations. If contemporary dance no longer depends on the narrative, what is the reality of the thing that communicates through the contemporary dance arts, flows between the performer and the audience erasing the boundary, thereby mutually changes the subjectivity of the two parties? What is displayed in the contemporary dance is the corporeality of mind-body unity contained by the existing individuals. This study aims to add the thickness of thought through the literary study based on art history and philosophy regarding the above questions and answers. Gilles Deleuze, who focuses on the artistic works with the contemporary sensibilities, says that contemporary art as ‘the block of sensation’ outside of the representational system directly provides the tangible attribute of intensity, thereby revealing the real. In dance that does not represent something else, the dancing body itself is the part of the material universe. As a part of the reality is the reality, the dancing body is the reality, and dance is the movement itself of reality. As Deleuze says, if contemporary art is the transcript of the real that emerges from the gap created by the dislocation from the representational system of the phenomenal world, contemporary dance is the most direct mode of the contemporary art. Diluting narrative, a dance with the corporeality is something the real itself, that cannot be captured by the linguistic dimension.

The purpose of this study explores the relationship between contemporary dance and feminism, and examines the influence of feminism on the aesthetic and practice of dance. This study was conducted through literature review and case study. I discussed the relationship between feminism and dance through the feminist’s movement and theory developed by Donna Haraway, Elizabeth Grosz, and Judith Butler.

The case analysis of this study, I choose two contemporary choreographers, Mette Ingvartsen and Jeremy Wade. Ingvartsen’s <69 Position> deals with the performances related to nudity and focuses on the socio-cultural environment in which the search for the relationship between politics and sexuality is mainly carried out over time. Ingvartsen’s feminist approach consists of exploring the relationship between the sexed body and society, capital, and politics. Wade propose the role of art as a sustainable practice through curation covering the political performance of queer, women, and people with disabilities in the project called “Future Clinic for Critical Care(FCCC).” Wade’s queering strategy means discovering social problems with minorities and driving political mobilization on them.

In this paper, I approach the knowledge of choreography in a way differing from the knowledge built on the patriarchal history. This research suggests that feminism is expected to exist as a source of undiscovered identities and opens up new possibilities for research and creation.