Definition of Justice

Justice is movement; it is actions taken towards a goal that you believe in so fully that you risk safety and well-being in pursuit of it.

This concept of justice as movement is introduced in André Lepecki’s article “Choreopolice & Choreopolitics,” where the idea that movement must be relearned and retaught in order to combat injustice is introduced in the form of choreopolitics. Choreopolitics is the basis upon which action is built. If it were not for the understanding that for action to succeed, it must be continuous, then any form of justice would fail, as even when won, it must be continuously fought for to uphold.

In Antigone, this pursuit of justice is seen in the seriousness with which Antigone takes burial customs for her brother. She follows through with the burial regardless of Creon’s orders, not because she wants to, but because it is the gods will. Her deep faith in the gods is what makes her actions just, as it is her deep belief that it is the gods will that she carry through with the burial. Her defiance of Creon’s orders not to bury her brother ultimately leads to not only her death, but also that of her lover and Creon’s wife. But Antigone holds no regrets about what she has done, as it is what she fully believes in.

The documentary theatre Anna Deavere Smith shows this movement-based justice in a different form. Smith sees a problem, and she moves herself out into the world to collect the perspectives of those involved, and then she brings it back to the stage in order to bring issues to light that would otherwise be left undealt with. For Twilight, she saw the 1992 Rodney King riots and what a tragedy they were, but she also saw how other minority groups were affected by the riots, namely Korean shopkeepers, in order to help every voice be heard. This is also why she performs every part herself, as when it is a single body collecting interviews, staging, and performing the piece, it allows the audience to better understand the message that is attempting to be conveyed.

Barbra Browning’s “Headspin: Capoeira’s Ironic Inversions” brings up the questions of whether people choose the way their body is situated and if people choose how their bodies make meaning socially. Inherently, people do not choose either of these things, but when considering justice as movement, new answers begin to form. Justice as movement is a movement that changes the way we situate ourselves in the world by going against social norms and customs in order to achieve a change in the nature of the world. It is not so much a choosing of how the body is situated, but rather a conscious choosing not to conform to the socially accepted way.

Justice as movement is also not fast; it is a process that can be attempted and failed many times over before it is finally reached for the first time. An example of this is given in Edwin Battistella’s article “When nations apologize,” where the story of how resistance from the inside prohibited the bringing of justice in the Vatican for years is told. When allegations of paedophile priests were being thrown at the Church, there were three Popes in a row before any real change happened. The first did some reforms, but did not take strong action. The second recognized that the problem had not been addressed, but also did not make any huge reforms. It was not until Pope Francis became Pope that real change occurred. He gave a private Mass to six victims of Church sexual assault, in which he said, “‘Before God and his people, I express my sorrow for the sins and grave crimes of clerical sexual abuse committed against you. And I humbly ask forgiveness.” This acknowledgment of wrongdoing and apology, while not reversing the wrong that occurred, starts to heal wounds and help victims move towards recovery.

Revenge and justice are not the same, and the distinction between the two is important. In Euripides’ Medea, Medea was wronged continuously by Jason, however, the actions she pursued against him were not just due to the way she went about it. Justice is about enacting a change in order to make it so that an issue of the same kind will not happen again. In Medea’s case, she did not work to make it so that something like this would not occur again, instead, she punished not only Jason, but also his new wife, Creon, and her own children. If looking from this example alone, this may appear to be just, but when looking at other victims’ stories and their reactions, it becomes clear there are better ways to react than this. Death and the Maiden is a perfect example of a perfectly tread line between justice and revenge. When Paulina recounts the things that Miranda tortured her with, she first states that the punishment she sees fit would be to rape him. But when she continues with her thought process, she comes to realize that a physical punishment is not what she wants; she instead wants a confession of all the horrors he has committed to keep for herself. This way of getting back at someone does not fall into the revenge category, as Paulina is not harming anyone else. She instead is simply trying to reconcile with her past in a way that does not hurt her offender more than he harmed her.

Works Cited

Battistella, Edwin. When Nations Apologize, 27 Mar. 2017.

Browning, Barbra. Headspin: Capoeira’s Ironic Inversions. 2003.

Dorfman, Ariel. “Death and the Maiden.” 2025.

Euripedes. “Medea.” 2025.

Lepecki, André. “Choreopolice and choreopolitics: Or, the task of the dancer.” TDR/The Drama Review, vol. 57, no. 4, Dec. 2013, pp. 13–27, https://doi.org/10.1162/dram_a_00300.

Sophocles. The Three Theban Plays: Antigone; Oedipus the King; Oedipus at Colonus, translated by Robert Fagles, Penguin Books, 1984.

Smith, Anna Deavere. “Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992.” 2025.