Philosophical Analysis of Choreographic Language: The Nature and Specificity of Dance Expressiveness

Abstract

Productive analysis of the language of choreographic art in order to determine the specifics of dance expressiveness requires the solution of three main tasks. Firstly, to explain the mechanism of functioning of the kinetic language; secondly, to highlight the expressive possibilities of dance, mime and plasticity; thirdly, to understand the ontological foundations of human motor activity in dance. It is not possible to solve the set tasks within the framework of cultural or semiotic approaches only. In this way, the phenomenon of dance is interpreted according to its representation in artistic culture, in the context of its functioning in the process of semiosis, and dance movements are initially endowed with communicative properties. The solution of the set tasks was carried out at the level of philosophical reflection. It was determined that a human being, as a result of the association of ideas and impressions in his consciousness, is peculiar to endow all objects and phenomena of reality perceived by him with meaning. Thus, the association of ideas and impressions in the human consciousness is the functional basis of kinetic language. But absolutely any manifestation of human motor activity can be endowed with meaning in a similar way. That is why dance, pantomime and plasticity — three related expressive means using human body movements as a material — were singled out in the kinetic language. Since it is impossible to understand the nature of dance movements on the basis of their external features, a hypothesis was proposed according to which these features themselves are conditioned by the inner state of mind of the dancer. Dance was defined as a type of human motor activity genetically connected with the “affect of joy” and aimed at maintaining and preserving its action. The conclusion is made: the specificity of dance expressiveness lies in the translation of a unique human state of mind, which is characterized by the feeling of unity of the rise of the body’s vitality and the increased ability of the soul to feel and perceive life in its fullness.