Gesture in poetry, movement and music: Approaching the total artwork through Sufism in Say I am You and Deniz Küstü (The Sea-Crossed Fisherman). Issue 3 (1st September 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Ellison, Michael
• Is Part Of: Dance, movement & spiritualities. Volume 3:Issue 3(2016)
• Page Start: 217
• Page End: 241
• Publication Date: 2016-09-01
• Subjects: Dance -- Periodicals; Spirituality -- Periodicals; Mind and body -- Periodicals; Movement therapy -- Periodicals; Dance therapy -- Periodicals; 793.3
• DOI: 10.1386/dmas.3.3.217_1
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2051-7076

Abstract

In this article I speak about my experience of the connective thread of the gesture, and how metaphors of gesture across disciplines underpin relationships between music, poetry and dance. I explore the notion that, if there is a unifying force in the creation of Art and uncovering of Consciousness, it lies in some kind of Ur-gesture – a gesture that exists before translation into a certain medium – behind the forms a craftsman of music, dance or words of obligation 'reduces it' to. Further, I compare Rumi's ideas on sema to those behind Whitehouse's notion of Authentic Movement, and justify my approach to the staging of Rumi and sema in the opera Say I am You: as though the Mevlevi sema formal ritual had never been codified. Finally, I explore ideas surrounding Ur-gesture in interview with the foremost modern dance choreographer in Turkey today, Zeynep Tanbay, while probing her process of choreographing Deniz Küstü, my second opera.