TASK 1 - Exploring notions of knowledge, certainty and body positivism

‘I am a dancer. I believe that we learn by practice. Whether it means to learn to dance by practicing dancing or to learn to live by practicing living, the principles are the same. In each it is the performance of a dedicated precise set of acts, physical or intellectual, from which comes shape of achievement, a sense of one's being, a satisfaction of spirit. One becomes in some area an athlete of God. To practice means to perform, in the face of all obstacles, some act of vision, of faith, of desire’ (Graham cited in Carter, 1988, p65-66). 

Martha Graham interests me because I can draw parallels within my own choreographic methods and way of moving. She believed that her choreography was autobiographical and reflective.  She states that, ‘Art is eternal for it reveals the inner landscape which is the sole of man’ (Graham cited in Carter, 1998, p66). In this way she uses dance to express her feelings and emotions in order to reveal something about herself. When you examine the chronology of dances she created there is a clear link between her state of mind and influences at the time across the works she has produced (Thoms, 2008). Her choreography also adapted to her physical degeneration in later life (Thoms, 2008).

This coincides with ideas of the body having power through dance and not a being passive entity. It is controlled by the mind. Thus the body could be viewed as a machine or a working tool which is fine tuned over time. Arguably the technique she developed which was embodied by her dancers evolved in their choreography through generations. Therefore this knowledge was translated and passed on through generations. This follows on from Dewey (1910), mind who viewed the body as a site of judgement, social order, and something that could be assessed and measured.

Whilst Martha Graham codified a dance technique which was unique, self revealing, and arguably autobiographical, what I find even more interesting is how the dancers she trained embodied this training as part of their movement vocabulary. Kant (1724-1802) states that, ‘Reality could not be understood through reason alone but needed a sensory experience’ (p27). Therefore any future choreography is subject to this embodied knowledge. 

This comes back to the idea of what you ‘know’ frames how you understand the world. Graham as a modern dancer drew on feelings and emotions and the unspoken understanding that not movement can not always be contextualised through the academic. In modern and contemporary dance, there is no proof to the audience watching what the dance is about or what the choreographer is trying to show. In this way it is non-positivist. The only way to translate what we believe to be the intentions is through frameworks and literature making suggestions on how to translate the movement into academic form. 

It could be argued that the way we move reflects our personality at a particular point in time. Blom and Chaplin state that, ‘movement styles are determined by... historical time frames, personality, body type and cultural values’ (Blom and Chaplin, 1982, p136). Thus, choreographic style is not static but dynamic and shifts over time according to what happens in our lives. 

In previous practice based research, I investigated the relationship between the audience and the choreographer/dancers and how the notions of autobiography and self revelation play a part in this. Already, this highlights how we are considering something that isn’t fixed, and something with multiple readings/views as a subjective non-positivist approach.