The Pathology of Joker's Dance: The Origins of Arthur Fleck's Body Aesthetics in Todd Phillips's 2019 Joker Film

Todd Phillips's 2019 movie Joker reconfigures and actualizes body aesthetics and performance traditions-eccentric movements and so-called epileptic dancing-celebrated around 1900 on the popular stage and in early film. This body language, consisting of bizarre contortions, dislocations, jerking...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Dance chronicle 2020-09, Vol.43 (3), p.321-337
Main Author: Jürgens, Anna-Sophie
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
clown
Clowns
Crime drama
Dance
epileptic and eccentric dancing
Joker
Medical disorders
mime
Mime (Art form)
Motion pictures
Pathology
popular entertainment
Theater
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Summary:Todd Phillips's 2019 movie Joker reconfigures and actualizes body aesthetics and performance traditions-eccentric movements and so-called epileptic dancing-celebrated around 1900 on the popular stage and in early film. This body language, consisting of bizarre contortions, dislocations, jerking, and gesticulating, is linked to medical discourses about the nervous system, and can be traced in popular theater throughout the twentieth century. This paper examines how it emerges in Arthur Fleck, aka the Joker.
ISSN:0147-2526
1532-4257
DOI:10.1080/01472526.2020.1816740