What I Have So Far

The Language of Dance

            “Some people believe they have an intuitive understanding of dance. Lay people, social scientists, and even dancers often use the term dance with the vague and uncritical connotations of ordinary speech” (Hanna 17). After having danced for almost twenty years, I have an intuitive understanding of dance, but it’s nearly impossible for me to articulate that understanding into a definition. Because of this difficulty, most people are unaware of the complexity of dance. What most don’t understand about dance is that it is a language that is just as complex as French or German. It has different levels and aspects to it; they’re just different than those you would find in a spoken language. There are many different parts surrounding the art form of dance as a whole. However, to understand how dance functions as a language and the powerful appeal that it holds, it is important to first have an understanding of how dance is defined. “So varied are the forms of dance…that it is difficult to offer a single definition or description that encompasses all forms” (Kraus 3).  However, after extensive analysis of the different forms and motivations behind these forms of dance, Kraus comes to this definition of dance:

“Dance is an art performed by individuals or groups of human beings, existing in time and space, in which the human body is the instrument and movement is the medium. The movement is stylized, and the entire dance work is characterized by form and structure. Dance is commonly performed to musical or other rhythmic accompaniment, and has as a primary purpose the expression of inner feelings and emotions, although it is often performed for social, ritual, entertainment, or other purposes” (Kraus 13).

Dance is a difficult thing to define, if only because it’s such a fluid and complicated form of expression. The definition that Kraus gives is the most accurate that I have come across in my research, albeit a bit more clinical than some. However, my point doesn’t lie in the definition; it lies in the truth that whether or not we, as individuals, are able to express our emotions through the movement of our body, “there is an innate, creative impulse toward expressive movement in each of us human beings” (Taylor 5). It is because of this creative impulse that resides in each of us as human beings, that the language of dance is able to instill awe in audience and dancers alike.

            Mary Wigman states that “The dance is a living language which speaks of man—an artistic message soaring above the ground of reality in order to speak, on a higher level, in images and allegories of man’s innermost emotions and need for communication” (10). Certainly a large part of the language of the dance is the movement used. Movement is what gives meaning and significance to the gestures of dance. “When the emotion of the dancing man frees the impulse to make visible his yet invisible images, then it is through bodily movement that these images manifest themselves in their first stages” (Wigman 10). The movements that the dancers employ to convey meaning is deepened by the emotion and understanding that the dancer has of their own body. In order for the movement of the dancer to be effective in conveying meaning, the dancer must be able to understand what his or her body can do. While body movement alone is not what makes dance a complete language, “…it is the elemental and incontestable basis without which there would be no dance” (Wigman 10). In my research on the languages of dance, I found that expert Judith Lynn Hanna adds to the evidence that movement is essential to the art form of dance by saying that “Meaning in dance is thus found internally, in the stylistic and structural manipulation of the elements of space, rhythm, and dynamics, and the human body’s physical control. In the embodied meaning of dance, one aspect of dance points to another rather than to what exists beyond the dance performance” (Hanna 24).