DOI: https://doi.org/10.17072/2078-7898/2021-4-604-612

On problematic issues of dance philosophy: semiotic and ontological aspects of dance movements

Timofey G. Krysankov
Postgraduate Student of the Department of Philosophical SciencesChelyabinsk State Institute of Culture,
36a, Ordzhonikidze st., Chelyabinsk, 454091, Russia;
e-mail: tkrysankov@yandex.ru
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9067-1144
ResearcherID: ABG-6773-2021

One of the core objectives of dance philosophy is research into dance movements as the main means of artistic expression in choreography. This article aims to break the tether of semiotic interpretation of dance movements, to analyze them outside the context of any corporal movement-based practice, and to determine their ontological base, being an irrevocable and immanent quality of human nature itself. Based on various research works in the fields of philosophy, culture studies and art studies, the nature and specific features of the choreographic arts’ expressive language are defined. Semiotic approach to the expressive specifics of dance movements is critically re-evaluated. Its limitations connected with the interpretation of the nature of dance movements in the context of understanding the nature of art are substantiated. With the help of the method of phenomenological reduction, the dance is represented as an independent phenomenon. Three important qualities of the nature of dance movements are identified: they occur spontaneously under the influence of positive emotions, have a connection with a person’s special mental state, contribute to the harmonization of a person’s lifeworld. Dancing is characterized by «happiness affect», being a source of an individual’s motional activity. This is the state of happiness, positive and joyful emotions that direct a person towards self-actualization. The research is novel in that it defines the ontological aspect of dance movements as those occurring as a result of the «happiness affect» and transferring the energy arising in the human body into an objectified form. Feeling the increased ability of their body to act and its internal energy, doing dance movements, a person experiences satisfaction and joy, and as a result harmony fills their lifeworld.

Keywords: dance philosophy, semiotic aspect of dance movements, kinesthetic language, ontological aspect of dance movements, phenomenological reduction, «happiness affect».

References

Atitanova, N.V. (2000). Tanets kak smyslovaya universaliya: ot vyrazitel’nogo dvizheniya k «dvizheniyu» smysla: dis. … kand. filos. nauk [Dance as a semantic universal: From expressive movement to «movement» of meaning: dissertation]. Saransk, 163 p.

Gerasimova, I.A. (2000). [Dance: the evolution of kinesthetic thinking]. Evolutsiya. Yazyk. Poznanie [Evolution. Language. Knowledge]. Moscow: Yazyki Russkoy Kul’tury Publ., pp. 84–112.

Gevlenko, Yu.A. (2009). [Semiotic analysis of dance]. Vestnik Tomskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta [Bulletin of Tomsk State University]. No. 320, pp. 87–89.

Khmelevskaya, S.A. (2018). [Logic of imaginative forms of comprehension of being]. Sotsial’no-politicheskie nauki[Sociopolitical Sciences]. No. 2, pp. 278–280.

Lapukhina, M.V. (2006). Analitika suschnosti schast’ya v russkoy traditsionnoy kul’ture: avtoref. dis. … kand. filos. nauk [Analysis of the essence of happiness in russian traditional culture: Abstract of Ph.D. dissertation]. Tambov, 22 p.

Melan’in, A.A. (2010). Metody analiza tantseval’nogo dvizheniya: avtoref. dis. … kand. iskusstvovedeniya [Methods of dance movement analysis: Abstract of Ph.D. dissertation]. Moscow, 24 p.

Morina, L.P. (2003). Mifologiya i fenomenologiya tantsa: avtoref. dis. … kand. filos. nauk [Mythology and phenomenology of dance: Abstract of Ph.D. dissertation]. Saint Petersburg, 20 p.

Pimenova, Zh.V. (2013). [Gesture aesthetics in the context of dance communication]. Nauchnyy vestnik Moskovskogo gosudarstvennogo tekhnicheskogo universiteta grazhdanskoy aviatsii [Civil Aviation High Technologies]. No. 191, pp. 66–70.

Pshikova, E.S. (2014). [Dance as a type of human activity: The problem of origin and definition]. Nauka o cheloveke: gumanitarnye issledovaniya [The Science of Person: Humanitarian Researches]. No. 3(17), pp. 139–144.

Ryazanova, Yu.N. (2016). Novye sredstva vyrazitel’nosti v baletnom iskusstve XX veka (k probleme sootnosheniya traditsii i novatorstva): dis. … kand. iskusstvovedeniya [New means of expression in the ballet art of the 20th century (on the problem of the relationship between tradition and innovation): dissertation]. Moscow, 208 p.

Sokol’chik, A.N. (2011). [The dancing body as the ideal matter for the expression of thought]. Izvestiya Rossiyskogo gosudarstvennogo pedagogicheskogo universiteta im. A.I. Gertsena [Izvestia: Herzen University Journal of Humanities & Sciences]. No. 130, pp. 291–295.

Spinoza, B. (2001). Etika [Ethics]. Minsk: Kharvest Publ.; Moscow: AST Publ., 336 p.

Tarasov, N.I. (2005). Klassicheskiy tanets. Shkola muzhskogo ispolnitel’stva [Classical dance. School of male performance]. Saint Petersburg: Lan’ Publ., 496 p.

Urazimbetov, D.D. (2015). [Semiotic aspects of choreography]. Vestnik Akademii Russkogo baleta im. A.Ya. Vaganovoy[Bulletin of the Vaganova Ballet Academy]. No. 1(36), pp. 106–113.

Vashkevich, N.N. (2009). Istoriya khoreografii vsekh vekov i narodov [The history of choreography of all ages and peoples]. Saint Petersburg: Lan’ Publ., Planet Muzyki Publ, 190 p.

Vychuzhanova, L.K. (2009). [The language of choreographic art as a sign and symbolic system]. Vestnik bashkirskogo universiteta [Bulletin of Bashkir University]. Vol. 14, no. 1, pp. 230–234.

Vychuzhanova, L.K. (2009). Yazyk khoreografii: filosofskiy analiz: dis. … kand. filos. nauk [The language of choreography: a philosophical analysis: dissertation]. Ufa, 173 p.

Received: 04.07.2021. Accepted: 12.09.2021

For citation:

Krysankov T.G. [On problematic issues of dance philosophy: semiotic and ontological aspects of dance movements]. Vestnik Permskogo universiteta. Filosofia. Psihologia. Sociologia [Perm University Herald. Philosophy. Psychology. Sociology], 2021, issue 4, pp. 604–612 (in Russian). DOI: https://doi.org/10.17072/2078-7898/2021-4-604-612