Ethical world gaze

Earth spinning in space grounds our world-sense of belonging, as do our spinning dances. This article explores self-world-earth relationships, particularly how direction of attention (intentionality) becomes formative in dancing. More widely, it develops a philosophy of an ethical world gaze, promising to enliven the senses. Somewhere between untenable extremes of optimism and pessimism, actions born of joy and hope draw me towards this possibility. Earth, world and nature entwine in language and perception, but they also have divergent aspects to be theorized. These imprecise terms become increasingly more discrete in the course of this article, textured through perspectives of Buddhism, eco-phenomenology and butoh. Examinations of ethics in dance and attendant relationships of morality build from there. I explore all of this in four sections of this work: Stargazing, Faces of joy and evanescence, Texturing world and nature, and As the moth.