Abstract
This essay investigates the ways dance narratives are constructed and aims to reconfirm the significance of dance narratives in the creation of meanings within dance practices. It draws on key concepts in narratology and psychoanalysis. These two critical perspectives are applied to the analysis of the narrative in Kenneth MacMillan’s 1991 one-act ballet, Winter Dreams. The analysis is based in two contradictory hypotheses: (1) the narrative represents the sequences of characters’ individual dreams/hopes/fears and (2) it traces a continuous line of the characters’ personal development. Identification of the narrative’s anachronistic structure and the presentation of archetypal characters support the former hypothesis, whereas the observation of the main characters’ interaction with these archetypes proves the latter. In conclusion, by demonstrating these evidences, this essay argues that a simultaneous manifestation of multiple narrative constructions is possible. Finally, the essay closes its argument by suggesting the unique characteristics of dance narratives that prove their capability for generating multiple meanings.
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