Dance: A Creative Art Experience

7. Form and Structure

Chapter 7 FORM AND STRUCTURE Form as structure is the prajection of forces within, into the outward form of their expression . It is the organization of motor elements into a meaningful , visible pattern. Copyrighted Material Copyrighted Material T HE IDEA of form becomes increasingly complex, for there must be not only unity of the psychological elements that give form to content, but also unity of the motor elements resulting in the observed structure. This observed form is what is usually thought of as a dance; and it is only by means of its outwardly constructed form that a dance is able to accomplish its dual purpose of expression and communication. It is through the visible form that the observer is brought into relation with the emotional and intellectual experience of the dancer. To compose is to produce what the mind has created. The success of the structural phase depends upon the choice of movements, their organization, and their execution. First let us consider the choice of movement symbols used. Although skillful and well co-ordinated movements are esential to dance, they will not assure its existence as an art form. For movement in dance is used as the medium of expression, and not as an activity executed for the exhibition of the functioning structure. Dance movements exist as acts that originate from spontaneous impulses, but they become modified by the informing mind as it molds and relates their forms to the end that there may be unity between movement and whatever of thought and feeling they are to embody. The dancer is given this very unity, for his tools are the expressive acts in which form and content have already been established, just as the poet is given unity in words and their meanings. When we consider the firm foundation that is laid for association between feeling and activity during an individual life, we can appreciate how much influence association exerts on the feel135 Copyrighted Material DANCE: A CREATIVE ART EXPERIENCE ings and on the activities connected with them. Movements have become meaningful not only through the process of association, but also through the rhythmical functioning of the body structure . Out of these untaught movement responses has evolved an appreciation of their characteristic forms and expressive mood values. Although the particular forms of movement response need not be identical, nevertheless there are constant fundamental elements of behavior that persist and cause movement to be understood . These are the essentials of movement that are to be discovered. selected, and abstracted as the carriers of meaning, and that become organized into the final dance. To illustrate: If a dancer wishes to dance her idea and feeling of a lullaby, it would not be the best art form if realistic movements of holding and rocking the child were used. But, if the positions of holding and rocking were suggested, and the essential rhythms of the lullaby behavior patterns were used for the rhythms of the dance movement, they would serve to suggest rather than produce the act itself. By understanding the general feeling states that inherently accompany actions, we can bring about an emotional experience by recalling and experiencing its motor phase. Thus the physical form arouses the art experience. For a dance, the process of association is complete when its movements are quickened by, and reverberate with, the quality of the feeling state which causes its expression. It is when this quality enters into a movement experience that action which otherwise seems buried in technique be136 Copyrighted Material FORM AND STRUCTURE comes dancing. That is, movement becomes dancing when the mind makes sense out of motor sensation by endowing it with personal and artistic meaning. When a complete experience is intentionally given form in expressive movements, there results a dance. So the particular problem of this phase of composing is the finding and working over of movements whose patterns and tensions , acting as emotive forces, will cause similar stresses and strains in the observer. To this end the dancer employs distortion as a means to stimulate and heighten awareness of feeling states through the visual design of his movements. As a term, distortion is unfortunate, for it too often suggests the ugly and unnatural, instead of a necessary deviation from the normal. Dance, like all the arts, distorts, that is, exaggerates its medium for artistic effect and expressive purpose , that there may be a heightening of forces as a more...