Orientation for communication: embodiment and the language of dance

<blockquote>Peer Review Journal</blockquote>
Journal cover - the head of a stone culture of a girl. Empedocles: European Journal for the Philosophy of Communication, Volume 4, Number 2.

– published in Empedocles European Journal for the Philosophy of Communication, Vol. 4, Iss: 2

Citation: Akinleye, A (2012). Orientation for Communication: embodiment, and the language of dance, Empedocles: the European Journal for the philosophy of communication, Vol. 4, Iss: 2, pp.101-112.

Abstract: In this paper I explore the place of movement, particularly dance in communication and understanding of the lived experience. I look at the gap between corporeal sensation and the communication of that experience into wider social contexts. Drawing on narratives gathered from four case studies in British schools, I look at dance as a mode of language that can offer a methodological approach to understanding the lived experience.

I take the pragmatist starting point of embodiment to argue that the immediacy of empirical experience is limited by use of verbal languages alone to organise meaning making. Although this creates a deficit of means for expression, I focus more on the implications it has as a loss in terms of understanding and organising epistemologically. I suggest that different languages have a rhizomatic relationship, each having equal potential to add to the quality and ‘thickness’ of communication of the multi-layered experience of embodiment. A richness of communication seems to lessen social isolation and enrich collaboration and cooperation.

 

Keywords: embodiment, dance, communication, sensation, perception, language.

doi.org/10.1386/ejpc.4.2.101_1