Ne faites pas la moue
Where Are the Women Philosophers?
The stakes of this episode are considerable: where are the women philosophers?
Throughout history, they seem rare. Yet as early as the 4th century BCE, Hipparchia caused a sensation by adopting the way of life of the Cynic philosophers. She made love in the street. She shocked society. Did she dance?
This performance therefore sets women of intellect dancing — playfully. It gives body and voice to these forgotten figures of history, often highly active, often influential, yet left without posterity.
Alongside the extraordinary Hipparchia, major figures are summoned onto the stage, such as Aspasia, Hypatia of Alexandria, Christine de Pizan, Mary Wollstonecraft, and Clémence Royer. And for the 20th and 21st centuries: the Bergsonettes, Simone de Beauvoir, Hannah Arendt, bell hooks, Eleni Varikas, Catherine Malabou, and Barbara Cassin.
Blending factual material with imagined dances, Do not pout #3 brings these women philosophers back to life through movement — women who, in their own ways, contributed to today’s reflections on feminism and gender.
The performance also questions the reasons behind the exclusion of women from the realm of thought for centuries. As for the movements themselves, to pay tribute to these women, the performer engages in Dionysian, Cynic, bookish, sculptural, and ecstatic dances — without forgetting the Compass Dance, which would suit Aspasia perfectly, nor the Brain Dance, which quite obviously proves that women do indeed have brains!
Performance: Geisha Fontaine