Gibney Dance: The Language Of Dance

The Language of Dance

Ruth St. Denis once said “I see dance being used as communication between body and soul, to express what it too deep to find for words.” In other words, dancing creates an inexpressible connection of ideas and variations that cannot be expressed through actual words. Dialogue can be seen in varies pieces of choreography between dancers and their narratives. Dancers are able to have a conversation within space, movement and interaction with one another. Gibney Dance presented two artists that were able to tell their stories through the cultural and environmental perspective of everyday life. Cuyjet and Jones not only as choreographers share that connection of messages but conversation with each other’s identities. Both

Her choreography is similar to afro-modern with incorporations of social dance helping to display the connection between African culture and their relationship to God. The piece effectively creates this relationship by initially connecting to the our sense of relationships and growing an emotional connection to us. Overall, the concept and message is constructed through space, audience and motion. Initially, walking into Gibney Dance you look at the space and think it has to be to demanding to use the space wisely. Being that the space is smaller creates an intimate setting that is relatable to this concept of ‘diaspora’. They welcome you with a note card inviting us to participate in the piece by writing a word down and dropping it in a bucket corresponding to that. The notes are placed in a bucket under a house, ladder and cross which are all later blessed with water . Preparing the audience for the experience and makes their own impression about the dancers views about the faith of God. Each symbol holds a representation of one another as home, guidance and praise given to God which is shown through elements like gesturing, spoken words and music. Jones identity in her choreography is created through her environment and God; a different experience from Cuyjet helps show how she dealt with her life challenges through

Her modern choreography creates and illustrates the importance of our relationships through one another and space. The use of shaping, mirroring and tempo is valued to show a sense of similarities between these two dancers in connection to everyday life adequately. The dialogue is initially created through the dancers; one African American and one Caucasian on different sides of the lights. One dancer 's movement is through stillness while the other is constantly traveling through the space with abrupt movement but when reach the mirror becomes more sustained as a reaction to it. This relationship is then not only create to each other but through mirroring of the bodies. Hinting to us as critics that ‘alike’ may really mean it 's not about how we look at ourselves in the mirror but how we preserve and view each others as