The Still Point in the Turning World

Abstract

This thesis investigates how visual technologies mediate the embodied emotional experience of dancing with feeling in Egyptian oriental dance, focusing on the transformative performances of female professional dancers. Dancing with feeling—the dancer's capacity to embody emotion, respond to musical nuance, and forge an intimate connection between body, music, and audience—lies at the heart of this practice, yet remains profoundly shaped by technological mediation. Through multi-sited ethnographic research combining live observation across eight countries with digital ethnography, this study draws on postphenomenological theory to illuminate how different visual technologies transform the learning, performance, and transmission of embodied feeling. From early photography and cinema, which established enduring visual ideals of emotional expression, to contemporary platforms like Instagram and YouTube, where dancers learn, connect, and reinterpret historical performances, each technology reshapes embodied practice in distinct ways. The research reveals how social media affordances simultaneously enable new intimacies and introduce algorithmic forces that shape visibility and interpretation. Dancers navigate and negotiate these technological mediations to sustain and transform their embodied expression across platforms and contexts. Ultimately, this thesis demonstrates that the lived experience of emotional authenticity exists not in spite of technological mediation, but within and through it—a still point of feeling turning within the world of technology.