The Body That Counts

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This article is intended to analyze the “digital techniques of dance” implied in the different dance notations from the perspective of Medienwissenschaft. Medienwissenschaft, which is often translated as German “media theories,” regards media as techniques through which concepts are developed. The digital technique is therefore redefined here as the technique of counting in general through which the concept of number is developed. The digital technique of dance in this article is also defined as the “technique of counting number with the body in dance.” This article's analysis of the digital techniques of dance begins with the notation developed by Rudolf Laban for the Western modern dance and that developed by Zhu Zai-yu for the ancient Chinese dance. These notations were once researched by one of the most important dance researchers and choreographers, Liu Feng-hsueh, for her Chinese modern dance. The analysis of these notations indicates that the digital technique of Laban's notation is based on partition of time and space and the digital technique of Zhu Zai-yu's notation is based on interpretation of force. The article argues that it is only through the analysis of the digital technique of dance that “Chineseness” in modern dance can be based not only on the “spirit of the arts,” which haunts dance like a ghost, but also on digital technique as the technique of the body. For research on Chinese modern dance, it is the body that counts.