Texts, Bodies, Multimodality: Dance Literacy in Context. (17th September 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Riggs Leyva, Rachael
• Is Part Of: Conference proceedings. (2015)
• Page Start: 89
• Page End: 94
• Publication Date: 2015-09-17
• Subjects: Dance -- Congresses; Dance -- History and criticism -- Congresses; Dance criticism -- Congresses; 792.8
• DOI: 10.1017/cor.2015.16
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2049-1255

Abstract

Abstract : Crossing between texts, bodies, and the senses, dance literacies bring fresh perspectives on how new literacies can function, especially non-alphabetic or non-text-based literacies. Reading and writing in an expanded understanding of literacy are interpretive means of interacting with texts, of embedding and discerning meaning, of making sense of movement or choreographic information, of composing and performing, and of creating documentation and archive. Makers and viewers of dances act as readers, and writers, and authors. These roles are permeable in dance literacy, shifting with the context of the dance phenomenon or artistic practice. This paper engages with the dance practices of two dance companies to explore issues of shared-authorship, documentation, multimodality, body-text relationships, and reader-writer permeability: the Bebe Miller Company during their creation of A History and RikudNetto, who composes through Eshkol-Wachman Movement Notation. What literacy events and practices are present in the studio? What range of written literacies are used and how? Where and how were these literacies learned? In what ways might they cross the so-called literacy-orality divide? Drawing from questions and frameworks of the New Literacy Studies, this paper invites a critical look at dance literacy in context.