Dance like everyone’s watching: Nietzschean philosophy in the work of Marlee Grace

This project intends to fulfill two purposes: to address a gap in Nietzsche scholarship surrounding the subject of dance, and to engage with a dance project, Personal Practice, that has yet to be the object of critical consideration. I would like to argue that Nietzsche not only properly diagnoses a widespread illness endemic to Western culture, but provides a means for its cure through the practice of revaluing values. I will look at Marlee Grace’s project Personal Practice as a natural exploration of this idea, and show how Nietzsche’s beckoning towards embodiment plays out in the modem world of technology and social media. Marlee Grace and Friedrich Nietzsche express an ultimate faith in the human project through practice in order to create value, inspire meaning, and abundantly love life with the entirety of the self.