Dance Experiencing or How To Verbalize Seeing Dance or Write About Dance.

Let’s talk about dance…. “That talk” in itself is a problematic attempt. Dance is its own kind
of non-verbal language (well but is dance - a language at all?) can you say for example: I am
hungry get me a cheeseburger with fries --- in a dance?) Try it!!!
Can you really talk about dance in words?

But before settling this age-old dilemma we must ask ourselves: what are the ways in which
we can experience dance?

As a dancer (participant):
Nowadays you can dance in many ways; in a class, as a professional dancer in a performative
fashion or socially in parties, celebrations and/or clubs. Dance has the power to give us a
sense of being alive and of being one with the universe… in motion.
Experiencing the constant motion of the universe from within… without the need to judge or
evaluate. It provides us with an avenue to “just” be.

While moving and dancing - most of us tap into an instinctual deep part of our being which
utilizes organically all of our faculties (mind, body and soul) in a wholesome way. Every
human can dance in some way or another… movement is part of life and nature and the
universe… everything around us and inside of us is in constant motion. Somehow I am
hoping to bring that sense of being fully present and alive into the writing about dance.

Dance was used since the dawn of civilization in prayers and ceremonial practices to bring
about rain, relief, food, a good hunt, long life, a good husband or wife, for the birth and the
death of loved ones, and to worship and connect to a greater power than ourselves as
individuals or as part of a communal dance in celebrations or mourning.
This is a Cherokee Indians War dance:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwIwd_VKim8&feature=related

As a spectator:
There are many ways in which to recall and/or reconstruct a dance after experiencing it as a
spectator. We will look at the most basic ones.

1. We can see dance as it is performed in the theatre, street or in other performative events
which clearly define the roles of performer/dancer and spectator.
Something to think about:
Can you recall a dance performance you saw a year ago? Two years ago?
(write down a few details about what you remember).
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2. We can read about dance in books or newspapers or on-line. Those written descriptions
use a mediated form (words) to describe the dance (as it was seen by the particular spectator)
and the reader is in a sense “listening” to the writer’s interpretation of what transpired in the
performance. In turn the written description causes a response and a kind of secondary dance
experience in the reader.

Read Gia Kourlas review of Impressing The Czar. Try to imagine the dance from her words,
to visualize the dance and the kinetic sense of it. Can you?
(http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/19/arts/dance/19czar.html)

3. We can see films/videos and digital images of dance (a two dimensional representation and
documentation of the art form of dance). We can even, with practice learn a particular dance
sequence by watching a video of that dance and then re-enacting it and copying it in time and
space. This may present a problem because a moving picture of a dance documents a specific
performance which may include an individual interpretation of a dancer, a mistake, some
fluke things which were not in the original and soon we find ourselves relating to dance as a
fixed text (the one documented on the film) which goes against the fluid nature of movement.
Go to YouTube and watch for example Martha Graham Lamentations a seminal work in
modern dance.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgf3xgbKYko&feature=related

4. We can see still photographs of a dance (which are frozen movement moments).
Photographs capture a singular moment or a pause within a moving sequence. It is possible
however to create a series of photographs that describe movement. If you close your eyes and
think about a movement sequence is it a still image that you see or a flow?

These are the four ways to experience dance as a viewer/spectator.

So now we have the task of how to look/see and then speak about or write about dance.
Before we go there I want to try something with you all:
What is this?

Well…. You are saying that it is a chair and that I am computer challenged in that it is in the
wrong orientation… ok…. How do you know that? How the hell do you know that it is a
chair? Tell me….

And what is this?

Well… yah… a blue chair upside down…. Great people…. You can see… You have
EYES!!! Congratulations!!!! But still how do you know it is so? And what makes it a
chair? Tell me everything you can SEE about this particular chair. What makes it a chair?
Let’s take a closer look at that infamous Ikea chair:

What is the structure and form of this particular chair?

(Write it down. Notice all the details about how it is made).
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What is the material from which the chair is made?

(Write it down as well and see if you can decipher all the materials that were involved in
constructing this chair).
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What is the purpose of the chair?

(Write down all the kinds of purposes that you think this chair or a chair can serve).
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Here is another picture to let you see the chair from another angle:
Is there such a thing as an aesthetic value to a chair… even if it’s not used for its intended
purpose i.e. (seating?) What does a chair turned upside down make you see about the chair or
about the state of seating that this photograph of the chair upside down brings up? What is
the role of imagination and memory in so far as seeing?

What the hell does it have to do with seeing dance? This Pulvermacher woman is crazy…
read on!!!

We will try to look at dance as if you are looking at the chair in our chair experiment;

1. We will try to observe the structure and form of the dance:

What was your first impressions…. (Somehow those are important). How is the dance
constructed? How many parts are there to the dance? How was the use of the space? How
many dancers? Is it a flow of events or a suite of separate dances? Are there clear sections to
the dance? How long is the dance? Are there patterns employed? Repetitions? What kinds
of repetitions? Are there variations? Is it a non -linear, never repeating flow of images and
movement? Is there an order? Disorder? Was there a sound track?
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2. What is the matter of the dance?

What is the movement material of the dance? Describe it: (Examples: fluid, sensuous, sharp,
fast, slow, even, dynamic, angular, round, touchy feely, sleek, codified familiar dance
vocabulary, unusual and original movement, dramatic, theatrical (why?), feminine, masculine,
fearless… Calligraphy-like and etc). Try to find words that will give the reader or listener a
visual image, a sensation of the kind of movement used in the dance that you are viewing.
What was the timing and phrasing in the dance? Was the movement original and what is
original anyway?
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3. What is the purpose of this dance? Does it have a purpose? Does it have a meaning? (This
is not about judging the work but rather about trying to understand what the choreographer is
trying to do and where is he coming from, and what the dance does to you the viewer when
you are watching it).
Purpose could also be also translated into context… where does this dance fit into? Is it a
narrative like dance that tells a personal, individual story? Is it a political statement? Is it a
purely aesthetic experiment? Is it illustrating something? Does it seem to be connected to
this time? Or is it a period piece trying to re-enact a particular time in history? Do you think
that the materials and the structure of the dance support the meaning or purpose that you have
deciphered? Did the sound track support the structure and purpose of the work? And lastly,
does this dance reference another dance or artist, a reality or a moment in history? How does
it do that?
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In visual art criticism there are four main steps that one takes in arriving at a value judgment
(ie: I like it, did not like it… and why?). The steps are:

• Describe (what do you see, what do you feel, the reaction it evokes in you)
• Analyze (how is it made? What is the form and structure? And what are the
Components? What is the matter, language of which it is made?)
• Interpret (what does the dance bring up in you? How does it connect to the world, the
intersection between the work and you and the references it brings up. This where the
meeting point between the work of art and you the spectator). This is where you apply
yourself and your experience to the work that you are viewing.
• Decide/Evaluate (essentially it is a subjective evaluation of the work saying in a kind
of backed up way if the work succeeded or not in your opinion and why. Some
questions that you can think about as you try to evaluate the work: Did the piece evoke
or provoke any Emotions in you? Were you left Thinking or Feeling or both? Did it leave
you wanting More?