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What do we mean when we talk about reading a dance? What do we aim to do when we demystify dance? When I'm working on a new dance, I use all kinds of language and sayings to get clarity on what I'm doing. I often wonder, though, why I use the words and sayings I do over other words and sayings. Like, why would I read a dance? I read books. But then I found this book:
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And I thought, "Wow, you can read a painting. Could we really make a book called, How to Read a Dance?" But then I thought, "If there were such a book, could we really apply it to all dance, or just some?" Reading a painting happens by way of reading certain images and what they mean symbolically within the context of history. Do all dances share a similar set of symbols throughout history? I don't think so.
And then I wondered about demystifying dance. It makes it sound like dance is a ghost or a paranormal experience foisted upon its audience like an accident one has to step back from, gain a clinical perspective of and pick apart to understand. {I do like the idea of a dance being a ghost.} Reading a dance suggests there is something to be read. That means people will attend a dance performance looking to read the dance in the way they read other things. And I don't think a dance is meant to be read like other things, like newspapers, blog posts or obituaries. Demystifying a dance suggests there is a mystery there and one needs to crack the code. {Usually the artist, in this context, all in a worthy attempt to get more people to enjoy dance. But also, often, the audience, which implies there is work to be done when you come to a show, and most people don't want to commit to that kind of confusing work.} It suggests that mystery is bad, not welcome in the theatre. And wasn't it Einstein that said, The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. And don't we kind of like that as artists? I do. I would rather die with a glut of mysterious dances in my pocket than one neat, perfectly understandable, translatable, legible dance with average ticket sales.
I love book by Mark Johnson, The Metaphors We Live By. In it, Johnson suggests "our ordinary conceptual system, in terms of of which we both think and act, is fundamentally metaphorical in nature." He goes on to write:
"The concepts that govern our thought are not just matters of the intellect. They also govern our everyday functioning, down to the most mundane details. Our concepts structure what we perceive, how we get around in the world, and how we relate to other people. Our conceptual system thus plays a central role in defining our everyday realities. If we are right in suggesting that our conceptual system is largely metaphorical, then the way we think, what we experience, and what we do every day is very much a matter of metaphor.'
I wonder about the ways we make dances and the sayings we then use so easily, so quickly, and, in turn, give permission to others to use {like other writers, reporters, friends, colleagues, other artists} to describe our work. I wonder about how dance makers are building a system of meaning making in dance through metaphor with these phrases---reading dance, demystifying dance---and other vernacular. I wonder where we, as dance makers, create space in the choreographic process to talk about what these easy phrases and sayings mean for us as a culture of meaning makers and thinkers. For I believe the language we use defines what we do.
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What metaphors do you use to describe what you do when making a dance?
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