From movement to dance

Maxine Sheets-Johnstone

pp. 39-57

in: Ivar Hagendoorn (ed), Dance and cognitive science, Phenomenology and the cognitive sciences 11 (1), 2012.

Abstract

This article begins with a summary phenomenological analysis of movement in conjunction with the question of "quality" in movement. It then specifies the particular kind of memory involved in a dancer's memorization of a dance. On the basis of the phenomenological analysis and specification of memory, it proceeds to a clarification of meaning in dance. Taking its clue from the preceding sections, the concluding section of the article sets forth reasons why present-day cognitive science is unable to provide insights into dance, notably because being largely tethered to happenings in the brain, it lacks foundational grounding in experience, specifically, the actual experience of movement, which is to say in kinesthesia.