Codes of dance improvisation: The case of Intuitive Dance

Abstract

The idea that dance can be understood as an act of communication and a form of language has been already taken into account by scholars. The hypothesis that will be discussed in this MA dissertation concerns a more specific matter: a semiotic approach to different forms of dance improvisation, and notably the method traditionally labeled "intuitive dance". To understand this phenomena two main concepts will be conveyed: that of "quotation" understood via W. Benjamin's essays on Brecht, and that of "notation", as defined by N. Goodman in his Languages of art. Can we understand dance as a language - id est a quotable and notable code - even in its more intuitive forms? How is it possible to "understand", "quote" and "address" gestures, even in front of a wide heterogeneous audience and without any prefixed choreography but only on the base of a free and in-time creating process? Can we understand improvisation as a complex code? what and how does this code mean? Keywords: improvisation, Intuitive Dance, semiotics, notation, gesture, Nelson Goodman, Walter Benjamin, dance, code

The idea that dance can be understood as an act of communication and a form of language has been already taken into account by scholars. The hypothesis that will be discussed in this MA dissertation concerns a more specific matter: a semiotic approach to different forms of dance improvisation, and notably the method traditionally labeled "intuitive dance". To understand this phenomena two main concepts will be conveyed: that of "quotation" understood via W. Benjamin's essays on Brecht, and that of "notation", as defined by N. Goodman in his Languages of art. Can we understand dance as a language - id est a quotable and notable code - even in its more intuitive forms? How is it possible to "understand", "quote" and "address" gestures, even in front of a wide heterogeneous audience and without any prefixed choreography but only on the base of a free and in-time creating process? Can we understand improvisation as a complex code? what and how does this code mean? Keywords: improvisation, Intuitive Dance, semiotics, notation, gesture, Nelson Goodman, Walter Benjamin, dance, code