Description
Book SynopsisThis book offers an approach which unites choreographic and spectatorial perspectives, and argues for dance itself—its materials, its structures—as a medium of emotional communication. Contemporary dance often seems to contend with issues of understanding, regularly being “read” in “languages” which alienate it. Even if emotion seems a significant part of people’s engagement with dance, its workings are often surrounded by an air of mysticism. Engaging with these issues, this study investigates the experience of emotion in Euro-American contemporary dance theatre. It questions its dependence on the artist’s personal emotions, and the assumption that it is mediated by representational meaning. Instead, this book proposes that the emotional import of dance emerges from an interplay between perceptual properties and symbolic elements in an embodied affective cognitive experience. This experience includes the background of the spectator as well as the context of work, choreographer, performer(s) and other creative agents.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Introduction. 4
The experience of emotional import as complex, bodily and thoughtful 5
Understanding emotion. 6
The affective realm and spectatorship. 9
Understandings of emotion in dance. 15
The ‘widely popular doctrine’ 16
Raw emotion and ineffability. 21
Emotion in Euro-American contemporary theatre dance. 23
4E cognition. 25
Experience of dance. 28
Spectator’s experience of Art 29
Aesthetic experience and disinterest 29
Kinesthetic empathy. 30
Establishing the research process. 33
Case studies. 38
Content organisation. 41
How to use the book and web resource. 42
Chapter 2 The analysis model 44
The method of analysis. 45
Movement Qualities. 46
Factors for analysis. 50
· Weight or Force/Muscular energy. 51
· Time/bodily rhythm.. 51
· Kinespheric Space. 52
· Flow.. 52
Observing movement qualities/efforts in the case studies. 53
Spatial-rhythm.. 57
Spatial forms in the analysis of choreography. 59
Virtuality, emergence, and perceptual properties. 60
The focal point 66
Analysis of video based on spatial-rhythm method. 67
Sound-movement relationships. 69
Structural relationships between sound and movement 70
Forms of analysis. 74
Reviews and my experience. 76
Video and still frame analysis. 78
Information from the creative processes. 81
Selection of examples for discussion. 82
Chapter 3. Case Study 1: Melancholy Spirals in Russell Maliphant’s
Afterlight (Part One) (2009): Emergence, Expressiveness, and Emotional Import 84
Introduction to
Afterlight (Part One) 85
Informed audience perspective. 89
Perceptual properties. 90
Remarkable features: Light 92
Notes on the choreographic process. 93
Analysis of properties and interactions. 94
Scene 1 | 02.10 | A sense of melancholy. 95
Scene 2 | Beginning of section 2 | A gasp. 101
Scene 3 | 07:56 to 07:58 | A silent cry of surrender 102
Scene 4 | 08:50 | A look of longing. 106
Scene 5 | 10:00 | A feeling of lightness. 108
Scene 6 | Final Scene | An impending loss. 110
Chapter Insights. 112
Emergence. 112
Expressiveness. 114
Emotional import 119
Chapter 4. Case Study 2: The poignant tensions of Crystal Pite’s
Dark Matters (2009): Embodiment, Enaction and Emotion. 126
Introduction to the work. 127
Informed Audience Perspective. 131
Perceptual properties. 132
Sound/text 133
Light 136
Notes on the choreographic process. 137
Analysis of properties and interactions. 138
Scene 1 | 00:01 | The solo’s opening scene. 138
Scene 2 | 01:07 | Power 139
Scene 3 | 01:33 | Reaching to infinity. 142
Scene 4 | 01:41-01:54 | Control and vulnerability. 144
Scene 5 | 02:01- 02:14 | Ripple through the body. 148
6 | Words and meaning. 150
Scene 7 | Final moments. 156
Chapter insights. 157
Embodied cognition. 161
Enactive perception. 164
Social construction of perception; theatre and visuality. 167
Embodied Concepts. 169
Embodiment, enaction and emotion: a summary. 172
Chapter 5. Case Study 3: the despair of
Petrichor (2016): Choreographer, analyst, audience, dancer 174
Introduction to
Petrichor. 176
Informed audience perspective. 180
Perceptual Properties. 181
Remarkable features: Music. 181
Analysis of properties and interactions. 183
Scene 1 | 00:24 - 00:44 Struggle and melancholy. 184
Scene 2 | 00:44 – 0:55 | Floating, voice, and poignancy. 188
Scene 3 | 01:04-01:10 | Reaching towards the light | Actively taken by energy. 191
Scene 4 | 01:13 – 01:22 | Delicacy and surrender, ephemerality and power 193
Scene 5 | 01:53 | Second solo repetition - Breaking free. 196
Scene 6 | 01:57 and 02:14 A brief elevation | Big arch of the back. 196
Scene 7 | Final moment 200
Chapter insights. 202
The choreographer’s experience. 209
The dancer’s role. 213
Chapter 6. Conclusion. 217
Poignancy as a summarising example. 223
Main points for future research. 225
Dance analysis. 225
Other directions of research. 229
Final thoughts. 232
