also... what is dance? (in progress too)

Dance is movement.
Dance is stillness.
Dance is communication.
Dance is art.
Dance is ritual.
Dance is ephemeral.
Dance is bodies in space.
Dance is social.
Dance is individual.
Dance is courtship.
Dance is intuitive.
Dance is learned.
Dance is performance.
Dance is ancient.
Dance is present.
Dance is intentional.
Dance is…

Dance is movement.
This seems to be inclusive of all dance, but not exclusive to dance. A moving body is not necessarily dance as a quadrangle is not necessarily a square. And yet is it fully inclusive. Is a woman lying still on a stage in a long red dress, partially illuminated by a square shaft of light dancing? Does the dance not begin until she moves?

Dance is movement and stillness.
But sleeping is not dance and walking down the street is not dance. But is it dancing if a group of people has been instructed to look out the window at the store you are walking by? What if there are forty people walking down the street in synchronization? Is a parade a dance? Carnival in Rio, yes? A military parade, no?

Dance is a communicative accumulation of stillness and movement. All dance, both social and concert dance, communicates something: desire, emotion, narrative, political statement, or more. Unlike mime or sign language, in dance each motion or phrase needn’t literally correspond to a specific meaning, though some may be contextually understood to correspond to a meaning.

Dance is a communicative accumulation of the stillness and movement of a body or bodies. Dance is unique and distinct from other art forms in that it utilizes moving and still bodies in space and through time to communicate. Dance differentiates itself from theater by taking the body as its central focus. While speech may be used in dance as in theater, dance takes as its core material the presence of the body along with whatever tools of communication it may or may not use: sound, object, light, text, etc. In meetings, in prayer, in conversation the stillness and movement of the body is used to communicate context or subtext. Is a slouched student fidgeting dancing? Is a row students seated purposefully slouched and fidgeting with pencils dancing, maybe. The intention, the awareness of gaze, of time, of the purpose of the motion and stillness is too crucial to the dance. So what is dance? Dance is many things. Dance is ambiguous. Dance is precise and essentially what it is. To stop, perhaps dance is…

…the conscious, communicative accumulation of the stillness and movement of a body or bodies.