Global perspectives on dance movement : salsa and Bharatanatyam

Abstract

Dance is bodily movement; however, while the movement is central to the dance, it is also part of a broader dance phenomenon. Furthermore, dances exist in particular contexts, many of which are found in a variety of trans-local contexts, and as the result of a historical process, all of which are embodied in elements of the movement. To study a dance, therefore, one needs to look at the entire phenomenon, beginning with a detailed description of the movement, then tracing elements of this throughout it contexts and history. This thesis develops a descriptive process for the study of dance in which the phenomenon guides both the language and the structure from the level of movement, through context to history. The process aims at first creating a representative description of the movement form, which can be used to develop analysis of specific examples of the dance. This is achieved through the combination of in depth description based on experience, videos and photographs, ethnographic research, and literature review, reflecting the researchers own insights, the insights of others, multidimensional contexts, and histories. Applying this process to different dance phenomenon, here salsa and Bharatanatyam, reveals how it yields results which take on the characteristics of the dance itself. Salsa is revealed to be an open and varied form, centred around a number of unifying movement and musical features, and likewise its trans-local manifestations are at once the product of a shared social dance culture and multiple and diverse, while its historical ingredients reveal elements of similarity and variety and are often characterised by a flexibility. Bharatanatyam, on the other hand, is an intricate system of detailed postures and movements that form a complex whole that is layered with the notions of it as an Indian classical tradition, and it is precisely these details and their composition which set the terms for the trans-local forms, and which are the product of its long history. Dance movement forms are a sum of particular sets of features, which form identifiable characteristics that manifest differently in different trans-local contexts and pertain to other internal, external and historical sources. Detailed description of the movement reveals these characteristics, which enlighten the examination of the phenomenon as a whole. Furthermore, across the trans-local network these characteristics manifest and interact differently, creating global matrices of the dance. Further study of other trans-local dance phenomenon would therefore reveal the numerous possible implications of this concept and process.