We have all heard it before: dance is a language. But why? Why is dance a language and an art?
This past year I found myself signing up and delving into two opposite classes (Ballet I and Linguistics), but somehow they reinforced and became ways to describe each other. First I started with ballet: 5-6-7-8, plie, grand plie, we never go into third position, point your toes, and you have to sew your shoes. My first night I went home exhausted and woke up sore the next day, but I was exhilarated. I felt a part of something, and as time went on my brain wondered why learning choreography was so satisfying.
Answer: I am a words person. I am a language person. Dance is a language.
The second new discipline I tried was Linguistics, the study of language, and it helps me to describe why dance is a language. Phonology, or the sound patterns within languages, describes what happens in a language like Spanish, English, ballet or music. In a spoken language you have an inventory of sounds, the combinations or rules where those sounds can occur and the modifications to the sounds or how they change in context.
In ballet we have an inventory of set moves and positions that are allowed and ones that aren’t. My roommate described that in ballet you point your toes and in modern it is a flat foot—two variations of dance, two variations of language. Then you have the rules about where you combine them like how there is a third position, but it hardly gets used. Lastly, how you modify those rules within the context of a dance, or in other words the choreography: how it all gets put together. A traditional ballet piece may be modified to add some modern dance flair or jazz touches.
When you dance, your body becomes a physical representation of meaning, which is the same way we use words. Sometimes, though, words don’t do it. Even that statement “words don’t do it” does not explain what I mean, but you still understand that I am pointing to the limits of language. Perhaps these limits of language can be reconciled by another form of expression that helps you show love, grief, anger, happiness or pain in a way that is more accessible than words.
I have found so much joy in dancing, and it has become a tangible metaphor to describe why I love writing and language. For some, dance is the perfect composition, but the pen or the keyboard is mine. I encourage everyone out there to try a dance class or expressing yourself in a new way whether that is art or photography or music or something else. This summer is the perfect time! Find your way to express and de-stress, inhale and exhale, laugh and cry—find your way to share your story.
