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criticism · An Essay on Aristocratic Radicalism

What dance means in Nietzsche

Brandes defines dance in Nietzsche's language as the lofty lightness of mind exalted above the gravity of earth and all stupid seriousness, introducing the Second Dance Song in which Zarathustra dances with Life as a woman.

At the close of the third part of Zarathustra there is a chapter headed "The Second Dance Song." Dance, in Nietzsche's language, is always an expression for the lofty lightness of mind, which is exalted above the gravity of earth and above all stupid seriousness. This song, extremely remarkable in its language, is a good specimen of the style of the work, when it soars into its highest flights of poetry. Life appears to Zarathustra as a woman; she strikes her castanets and he dances with her, flinging out all his wrath with life and all his love of life.

On Zarathustra