Choreopolice and Choreopolitics: or, the task of the dancer

The choreographic element in Jacques Rancière's notion of “police” is used to advance the concept of “choreopolice,” which can then be set in opposition to “choreopolitics” to redefine “choreography” and release it from imperative, or normative (i.e., policed) constructions of movement. Hannah Arendt's notion that freedom is the telos of politics identifies how within several types of choreography (TURF street dance, Tania Bruguera's Arte de Conducta, and Sarah Michelson's Devotion Study #1 — The American Dancer), the dancer's task is to search and enact that freedom, over and over again.