Choreomusical Discourse. The relationship between Dance and Music

Nordic Theatre Studies

REVIEWS G. Deleuze: "Il n'y a plus de représentation, il n'y a que de l'action, de l'action de théorie de pratique dans des rapport de relais ou de réseaux […] M. Foucault: […] la théorie n'exprimera pas, ne traduira pas, n'appliquera pas une pratique, elle est une pratique." (From a conversation between Michel Foucault and Gilles Deleuze published in l'Arc 1972 under the title Les in-tellectuels et le pouvoir 8 p. 205). 1

My paper presents an attempt at observing how the arts may mingle with each other and share technical features at the beginning of the modernist period (late XIXth/early XXth centuries), with particular attention paid to dance pieces inspiring works of poetry and poetic rhetorical figures being a source of inspiration for danced gestures. The encounter between dance and poetry, instead of confronting poetry with painting, or poetry with music, paves the way for establishing a new methodology which requires an interdisciplinary use of stylistic and rhythmical devices, as well as the combination of the Aesthetic, Linguistic and Semiotic disciplines. The confrontation of choreographical codes, operating silently, but rhythmically and visually, with the poetic ones, striving to convey such dynamic perceptions through language, will be analysed through Rainer Maria Rilke's, and T. S. Eliot's poetry, both heirs and readers of Stéphane Mallarmé, in relation to the innovative avant-garde dancers Loïe Fuller, Isadora Duncan and Nijinsky. My aim is to state that this interaction between poets conjuring movement within verse and dancers evocating poetry through a choreography on the stage captures the very ambition of modern aesthetics, exploring through hybrid forms and blurred boundaries of traditional genres, the crucial notion of rhythm in every form of art. In this regard, I will try and explain why modern dance at its early stage in the XXth century epitomizes the modern thirst to investigate a renewed form of abstract and rhythmical expression, concentrating on representing dynamic conflicts, and on rendering rhythmical impressions upon the page, the score, the canvas or the stage.

Dance Fields: Staking a Claim for Dance Studies in the Twenty-First Century, eds. Ann R David, Michael Huxley, Sarah Whatley, Binsted, Hampshire: Dance Books, pp. 220-248, 2020

This chapter is particularly concerned with the status of history, dance history especially, within Dance Studies. It asks what has befallen the more recent status of history, once an epistemological support at a critical stage in Dance Studies’s early development, now that Dance Studies is better established, relatively speaking, within the academy. What, then, becomes of (dance) history? If history is not actually discarded, is it at least demoted? Indeed is history, having fulfilled its purpose in enabling the disciplinary plant to take root, so much scaffolding waiting to be dismantled? Three factors will be identified and proposed as having particular significance in this connection, imbuing this chapter with a tri-partite structure. The first concerns the strong imprint of Cultural Studies on Dance Studies and the possible bearing of this imprint on dance history’s status within Dance Studies. For the particular manner in which Dance Studies has construed Cultural Studies may, this chapter will suggest, have impacted upon dance history’s standing within communities of dance scholarship. The second factor has to do with the implications, for dance history, of a particular critique based in a branch of dance scholarship, that perceives phenomenology, which it deems a good fit for dance inquiry, as inherently antithetical to history. In particular, this critique takes the work of Michel Foucault - which it identifies closely with, and as, historical practice - as incompatible with dance enquiry. Incompatibility is staked on the twin grounds of Foucault’s break with, and supposed resulting and enduring antipathy towards, phenomenology; and his perceived embrace of history which is, itself, also understood to result from such a break. In effect, then, this critique questions the very suitability, for dance research, of approaches based in history-focussed inquiry. The ability to call this critique into question, in the ways that the present discussion, in seeking to rehabilitate Foucault, and so history, needs to demonstrate, constitutes the third factor. This final factor makes two particular, further demands of this chapter. Namely that the interrelated questions of Foucault, phenomenology, and dance; and of the position which phenomenology has itself adopted in relation to history, be re-visited and re-evaluated to the extent that space reasonably allows. Fortunately, these interrelated questions are ones which have - relatively recently - preoccupied scholarship on Foucault, and on phenomenology, respectively. This preoccupation may in and of itself be one possible indicator that there is indeed more at stake, and so to consider, regarding both questions, than the lines drawn by the aforementioned critique might suggest.

Anglistica AION, 2016

The discussion about the subject of Sublimation is articulated, complex and rigorous. These pages deliberately address the issue indirectly in the attempt to add useful elements to the critical analysis from the point of view of who, as choreographer and performer, is devoted to the artistic practice of dance. My observations therefore concern the two constituent elements of the choreographic act: the body and the scene. The 'body' as territory of the creative and cognitive experience of the dancer-choreographer: here I try to render, from my personal experience, that which is intimate in the creative and generative process of the choreographic act. The 'scene' as territory of the aesthetic-cognitive experience of the spectator-witness: the attempt here is to provide, as careful observer of the performative act, reflections about the role of the spectator in the performative dialectics. Both perspectives investigate the relationship between dance and thought, and, incidentally, between the body and the mind.

If we look at the structural contents of dance as a domain of experience, it is interesting how we conceptualize - and hence talk about - it, not least metaphorically, borrowing ways of thinking about it from other domains - and reversely how dance can provide a conceptual frame for talking about things that are only metaphorically dance-related. The aim in this paper is to tie these dimensions together - communication, dance and music - and explore their interrelation, by applying Semantic Domains Theory to dialogue metaphors for dance. Through this novel methodology and by applying the notion of semantic domains to concrete examples of empirical language use, I seek to present a convincing argument for the crucial significance of rhythm, common to music and language, both in markedly rhythmic dialogue-behavior (apparent as a parameter even in prelinguistic infant behavior), as well as in musical prosody and the prosody of linguistic utterances. Furthermore, a central emphasis in what follows is an, I claim, prominent and important aspect to having a body, which is often overlooked or trivialized in cognitive linguistics (as discussed below), namely the social one. An informed appreciation of our non-isolated, non-self-reliant way of being in the world in turn warrants a reevaluation of the cognitive-linguistic concept of the “embodied” mind. Subsections: 1. Interpersonal attunement and turn-taking interaction: Introductory remarks on music and language 2. Linguistic metaphor, conceptual metaphor, and domains 3. Source and target domains in dance-as-dialogue metaphors 4. Tango: a romantic dialogue 5. Capoeira: a dialogue of acrobatics 6. Concluding remarks

Dance, like most other art forms, is not intrinsically representational. In fact, the expressive, ritualistic or aesthetic dimensions have often had primacy over the referential over the course of its variegated history, and in much modern and contemporary dance, the representational element is sometimes deliberately suppressed as part of a reaction against the romantic ballet tradition. However, the fact that dance events have so frequently been conceived on the back of literary works in Western culture indicates that some level of semanticization of movement is not only possible but also widely recognised. Indeed, some dances are so closely bound to a preceding literary work that they may be considered as “intersemiotic translations” (Jakobson 1992), i.e. rewritings of a verbal text in a kinetic sign system. This is particularly the case with ballet, as we see here. There have been a number of theories put forward as to how dance represents elements from the outside world. The earliest analyses assumed that it acquired its signifying potential from the way in which human beings physically relate to each other and to their environment in everyday life, thereby positing something inherently ‘natural’ and universal about the kinesthetic code. More recent commentators, on the other hand, emphasise the importance of culture in determining not only the semiotic significance of particular movements but also the way in which those movements are conventionalised into genres. The aim of this paper is to examine the semiotic code that is the Western dance tradition in order to try to isolate some of the ‘signs’ that may be mobilised by choreographers and performers for the purpose of intersemiotic translation. These are exemplified with reference to different ballet versions of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.

2013

Remembering folklore, staging contemporary dance.