Dancing Dante’s La Vita Nuova: The task of the translator–choreographer

‘Dancing Dante’s La Vita Nuova ’ is a reflection on the choreographic process as translation, specifically, prismatic translation, as conceptualized by translation theorist Matthew Reynolds. Dancing three passages from Dante Alighieri’s La Vita Nuova , performing the role of Beatrice, Dante’s female muse, I explore how dance praxis might embolden us to imagine literary texts anew and envision worlds beyond the pen of the author. Following Walter Benjamin’s assertion in ‘The task of the translator’ (1923) that translation breathes a new life into the source text, I investigate through dance-as-translation the potential to craft a new life for Beatrice transcending beyond Dante’s written word. The title of this article, of course, riffs on Benjamin’s foundational essay, framing choreography as a new application of translation.