Body Knowledge/Body Prejudice - Allie (Dance 360)

I enjoyed this article because it made me think about the reasons our bodies move they way they do. I liked the explanation of human beings’ movement as an extension system - or the need to extend one’s capabilities. Although this extension system fact is often overlooked today, extension systems are still ways that we as humans connect more private movements to public understanding. One aspect of this system that I found particularly interesting was the idea of the degree of abstraction. Extensions often leave one thing out, while exaggerating another. This idea, although explained with pictures of trees in the reading, makes me think about the abstraction in choreography - how the dancers are inevitably going to give your choreography their own touch by exaggerating some movements and downplaying others just by the way that their individual bodies move. I’ve never had to choreograph a group piece before, but by thinking more thoroughly about body movement and perception, I am excited to start work with my dancers.

In dealing with the Ladder of Abstraction, I had a few questions. If the same concrete behavior can mean two completely different things, then how can a dancer express the message they are trying to convey? I just wonder if adjusting little articulations is how we can get the audience to pick up on the right meaning? Or is it something bigger than that? Is it really in abstracting that we find meaning in something? I am a little confused with this idea I guess.

However, relating this idea of abstraction to body prejudice is quite interesting. Often we assign prejudices to certain movements because of this process of abstraction and generalization. As humans, we tend to tune out some movement and judge based on what we expect. I think that when it comes to dance, body prejudice can be a hindrance to interpreting and experiencing the performance. A quote that I thought captured the idea of this reading was that “movement perception/interpretation yields some of our richest insights as well as some of our most profound misapprehensions.” Interpreting movement can either help us discover the deeper meaning, or it can lead us far away from the real idea because of abstraction.