Katherine Profeta in the first chapter of her book Dramaturgy in Motion discusses the possible functions of spoken words in dance. Spoken words are oral language or language uttered in speech according to Oxford English Dictionary. Traditionally they rarely exist in dance performance because dance is in nature movement-based and soundless.
In the book Profeta explores how dancers’ speeches facilitate artistic expression with Geography as an example. In this dance piece, by including poems and lyrics in West African languages, the choreographer emphasizes a message about “cultural specificity” and “intercultural collaboration” (Profeta 34). Also, separating the spoken text from the mute movements in the form of a monologue can be another way to include words in performance; the monologue sets up a field for dancers to elaborate on the meaning of the words.
This is an intriguing discussion since there is the belief that dance is supposed to be pure motions and that speech deprives dance of its valuable ambiguity and infinite possibilities. However, Katherine’s exploration on the concept of “spoken words” in dance dramaturgy suggests new relationships between text and dance. Her rumination on speech opens an innovative door for movements to create meaning.
Works Cited
Profeta, Katherine. Dramaturgy in Motion: At Work on Dance and Movement Performance. The University of Wisconsin Press.
ED Online, Oxford University Press, June 2017, www.oed.com/view/Entry/187285. Accessed 5 January 2018.
Hi Julie,
A few writing notes: Book titles are to be written in italics. Journal articles or definitions from a dictionary should be in quotation marks. You should work with the writing center on punctuation – placement of commas to set off clauses especially. Authors are first referred to by first and last name, then only last name on successive mentions.
Your observation about why words are used in dance – a form that is often though of as movement without the use of speech — is related to the issues of comprehending culture or an intercultural encounter. That is at the heart of why you chose the keyword “spoken words” because what you are pointing to is that an audience member may not share the same cultural references as the performer – and even the performers themselves may not share cultural references. So movement could mean different things to different viewers and to different dancers. Spoken language, you suggest, might assist in bridging that gap. My observation is that even the idea of dance without words is an invented idea — why do you think that division occurred in the first place? Could it be that words really were not needed to read a shared meaning or could it be that words revealed the complications that movement smooths over? When Profeta talks about words and monologues, they obscure as well as reveal and negotiate, and often they can make the individual saying them even more singular. Why is dance now invested in bringing text and speech back to the scene of movement? Is it to make meaning easier, and does it detract from just “feeling” the dance? And is that the purpose?