Dependently Generative Empty Stages Theory of Ontology of Dance-Work

This essay presents Dependently Generative Empty Stages (DGES) theory to explain the ontology of dance work as an artifact. This essay critiques the views within analytical ontology art works that treat repeatable works such as music and dance as fixed "types" or "space-time worms". Because these views maintain the art work integrity over time. This work argues that the bodily and fluid nature of dance art invalidates these continuity-based approaches. The essay primarily argues that the conservative views of Nicholas Wolterstorff, who defines artwork as a norm-based fixed type (Norm-Kind), and Nurbay Irmak, who defines it as a created abstract artifact, don’t meet to explain the concrete and variable reality of dance. The essay also argues that the "Perdurantism" model proposed by Ben Caplan and Carl Matheson imposes an artificial ontological unity on radically different performances when applied to dance. In this context, the essay proposes a new model that synthesizes Theodore Sider's metaphysical "Stage Theory" (Exdurantism) with the Buddhist principle of "Dependent Co-Arising" (Pratītyasamutpāda). According to this model, the dance work is a decentralized, scattered cluster of generative stages. Each performance is ontologically autonomous but emerges causally dependent on the previous stage. Therefore, different performances are not parts of the "same" work. As David Lewis describes, different performances separated only by a "Counterpart Relation" and their identities are established through the viewer's gaze and convention.