Modern dance body language

Author: Liu Qingyi
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-07-01
Features: The book is divided into two parts: Part 1 focuses on the theoretical study of the physical actions in modern dance, while Part 2 explores the forms of physical actions in modern dance. The former, through four chapters—The Roots of Movement, Force Effect Thinking, Movement Space, and Discovering the Body—constructs a theoretical framework for the abstract movement language of Western modern dance, analyzing its elements and semantic characteristics. It reveals the conceptual transformation in the science of human movement and body language, uncovering modern dance's reinterpretation of the essence of movement, spatiality, and time. The latter, through four chapters—The Feminine Body, The Masculine Body, The Body of Gender Inversion, and The Origin of the Body—studies the unique features of the physical action languages in ballet, modern dance, and postmodern dance. Through vertical comparisons, it provides a historical chart of the variations in body language forms, while in the narration and reinterpretation of dance texts, it highlights the spiritual pursuits and value orientations of modern dancers, revealing their correlations with historical and cultural contexts. It offers effective body strategies for human survival in the contemporary era—returning to the origin of the body—while maintaining the independent character of national culture amidst global cultural exchange and integration.
Embodiment is the most important concept used in this book. It is both the root and the purpose of the physical language of modern dance. The body is both a natural product and a cultural product, firmly rooted in a specific historical moment. Since the gender, emotions, desires, and states of all individual lives are manifested within this flesh, all social, political, cultural, moral, and ideological issues are transmitted through the human body. As a typical phenomenon of embodiment, dance art is the result of training the body in a special form under the guidance of human will. Therefore, whether in terms of sensory perception or abstract spirituality, the body in dance embodies certain national, social, ethnic, class, temporal, and cultural customs. As a fundamental method, the study of the embodied body in dance will inject a new humanistic spirit into danceology, opening a necessary path for dance criticism and dance cultural studies.