En-visioning the dance: the audience as mirror

The current article is focused upon an exploration of the question of the nature of the art audience, with a specific emphasis on dance considered as a performing art. Five possible kinds of perceiver involved in the reception of dance as an art are discussed in order to demonstrate that the much criticized metaphor of the mirror can indeed function as a fruitful means to develop an understanding of how dance as an art is perceived, specifically if a more nuanced understanding of the mirror metaphor is applied. In its attempt to rehabilitate this metaphor, the paper draws upon and develops selected aspects of the philosophy of art proposed by John Dewey in his often overlooked Art as Experience (1934).