Mr. Wen Yiduo once described a primitive Australian cropolis dance in his article "Speaking of Dance". From the primitive dance that is extremely rhythmic, extremely passionate, simple and rough, we see the direct performance of life functions and the true face of dance. It is not only "the most direct, most substantial, strongest, sharpest, simplest and most sufficient expression of the mood of life", but also "the most comprehensive art among all arts". All the other arts of primitive man—music, poetry, sculpture, painting, etc.—gain their meaning in this simple and wonderful dance. As a result, the reality of life is enriched, and the world of art is born.
Since Hegel regarded dance as an "incomplete art", in the entire field of modern Western art philosophy, it seems that only Susan Lange and Nelson Goodman have distinguished dance from other forms of art. Art on par. In fact, as early as 1938, Robin George Collingwood clearly pointed out the prominent position of dance among all art forms in his book "Principles of Art". Starting from expressionism, he believed that since the essence of art is to express emotions, any emotion must be expressed in the form of language. Therefore, each art form becomes a special language. Here Collingwood, like Croce, regards art and language as one. Collingwood further pointed out, "Speech is only a system of knowledge, and its characteristic is that each gesture produces a characteristic sound, so that it can be understood through the eyes as well as the ears" [2]( P250). All kinds of language have this relationship with body gestures. Every language or language system (speech, gestural language, etc.) is a branch of the original language that originated from whole-body gestures. In this primitive language every movement and every fixed gesture of the parts of the body has the same significance as the movements of the articulators in spoken language. A person who uses this type of language will use all parts of his body when speaking. Collingwood believes that this whole-body language of movement and posture is the only language that "actually exists", and what we call speech and other types of language today are only part of it, and they are all specialized body movements and postures. form. In this way, dance, an art based on physical activity as its only premise, is not only the mother of all languages, but also the mother of all arts.
Collingwood's conclusion is not derived from far-fetched archaeological deductions (although he is an archaeologist himself), but is rooted in the facts before him. From a large number of facts in life and art, he discovered something essential between language and action. However, Collingwood was limited to describing the phenomena of his findings without scientific demonstration. This may be one of the reasons why his dance art theory has not been taken seriously. Because as John Martin said: "For many people, turning life experience into a synonym for action may be a completely unfamiliar idea, because action is something that people are completely accustomed to. It is easy for people to ignore this fact, It constitutes the main component of daily life and thinking." [3] (P19) Discovering something essential from this overlooked fact that is considered "commonplace" by ordinary people is an essential quality for genius. . Collingwood did that. However, he did not fundamentally solve the essential connection between dance and other arts that use human body movements and gestures as a medium of communication. Because Collingwood neither identifies the essence of movement and its deep connection with language, nor explains the qualities of dance, but simply boils it down to "the language of expression."
What is the essence of dance? What does dance create? Susan Lange said: "In a country controlled by various mysterious forces, the first image created must be like this. A dynamic dance image, the first objectification of human nature must also be a dance image. Therefore, dance can be said to be the first real art created by human beings." [4] (P11) Lange starts from semiotics. , believes that dance is an image, or "illusion". Dance creates "dynamic images". This dynamic image is not an ordinary thing in nature, it is a virtual entity that exists only for perception. Saying it is imaginary does not mean it is unreal. In any case, as long as you encounter it, you can actually perceive it, not dream or imagine it.
Just like a dazzling rainbow produced by the interaction of rain, fog and light, anyone with normal vision can see it when standing in an appropriate position. And it is just an illusion, a virtual entity. Similarly, what we see, hear or feel from a perfect dance should also be some virtual entities (although it contains certain physical realities: location, gravity, human body, muscle power, lights, sounds, props, etc. ), is the force that brings dance to life. It is the force emitted from the center of the image to the surroundings or the force gathered from the surrounding to the center. It is the conflict and resolution of these forces, the ups and downs and rhythm changes of these forces. All this constitutes a dynamic dance image. Lange found the symbol of the mysterious kingdom here. It is believed that when religious thought gave birth to the concept of "divine", dance expressed it with symbols. As she said in her book "Emotion and Form": "In the initial stage of imagination, these terrible and numerous gods around humans did not have clear forms. The initial understanding of them was through human power and will. These gods, felt in the human body, are initially reproduced through physical activities... These activities are what people usually call 'dance'. Dance creates an image of indescribable, even invisible forces that focus on it. It is full of a complete and independent kingdom-'the world', which is the first expression of the world as a kingdom composed of mysterious forces." [5](P216)
However, for primitive people. , this created "god" is an actual existence, not a symbol. Dance is not a symbol of "god", God is created precisely from this dance. Only through dancing can people enter the mysterious kingdom, and only in dancing can a world full of magical power be created. As music and dance historian Dr. Kurt Sahas said: "In the addiction to dance, people cross the gap between the real world and another world, and move towards the world of devils, elves and God." [5] (P218) Obviously, Langer made a mistake here, that is, separating the "kingdom" represented by dance from human "dancing" activities. She said: "The symbol of the world, that is, the kingdom expressed through dance, is the world. Dancing is an activity in this kingdom." [5] (P217) This means the separation of people and the world. In fact, it is not because of art that the relationship between man and the world has become poetic. Man has lived in this world poetically from the beginning. The world is not an empty, isolated container used to hold various things. It is the world in which people live. The world of art is not a place for people's activities, it only exists in people's creative activities. From this point of view, Susan Lange did not truly reveal the essence of dance, and therefore failed to truly explain why dance is the earliest real art created by mankind.
It can be seen that neither Collingwood's "whole-body movement gesture language" nor Lange's "dynamic image" can fundamentally solve the characteristics of dance and its relationship with other arts. Their common flaw is that they ignore the discussion of "action" and "dynamics" themselves, and that art is an activity and a specific creative process. This is the limitation of expressionism and semiotics.
For Lange, it is the force that seems to drive the pure appearance of the dance itself that gives dance life. The real physical force that was its basis disappeared instead. However, modern psychology tells us that neither the "physical force" that is the basis of dance nor the pure "appearance force" that seems to drive the dance can be seen. Rudolf Arnheim pointed out: "Obviously, kinetic energy itself is invisible, and it does not really exist on the square screen in front of us. In fact, even if we are watching a real person walking on the street When a person is moving, he cannot see the physical force that drives his body forward. What he sees is nothing but its obvious displacement. All we are concerned with (or see) here is nothing more than that. The psychological counterpart of the physiological activity produced by this visible displacement stimulates the observer's nervous system. Therefore, the forces we observe ultimately depend on the precise and clever stimulation conditions." [6] (P550) Obviously, Arnheim has keenly felt that what is involved here is not all physiological functions, but he did not further explore how this "psychological counterpart" is generated, but simply It comes down to the decision of "stimulus conditions".
“Knowledge comes from actions, not from objects”. Piaget believed that not only the "force" that people "see" drives the displacement of objects, but even the perception of the "displacement" itself can only be examined from their connection with action. Because without action and "action schema", the perception of human beings (mainly referring to human childhood) will only play the role of displaying images like a TV screen. Once the signal is interrupted, the images will disappear without leaving any traces. Piaget described: "The world of young infants is a world without objects. It is only composed of changing and unreal 'cartoons' that disappear completely after appearing..." It can be seen that in "permanent objects" It is impossible for infants and young children who have not yet appeared to perceive "displacement". It's just that "with the development of behavioral patterns for locating and searching for 'permanent objects', 'displacement' finally constitutes the basic structure of actual space." [7] (P13-14)
Obviously, All human knowledge and experience (not just visual perception) can only come from the overall activity of the human body. Without this physical activity, we will not be able to understand any perceptual objects. If according to Collingwood's theory, the original art is regarded as "language of expression", then any kind of language (including the language of painting, music language, poetry, etc.) can only be meaningful when combined with action. Therefore, all other art forms can only emerge from the matrix of dance art, which takes physical activity as its only premise. This may be why poetry, music, and dance are always a trinity in primitive art. Therefore, Sahas said: "One of the very puzzling facts is that dance, as a high art, has developed in prehistory. In the early years of civilization, it reached the level of other arts and sciences. An unparalleled level of perfection. During that period, people generally lived in savage groups, and the sculptures and buildings created by people were still very primitive. Poetry had not yet appeared during this period, but they created things that impressed all anthropologists. Everyone is surprised by the difficult and beautiful dance art! The music they created during this period would sound nothing if it were separated from this dance. It is only when accompanied by this dance that the music becomes beautiful. " [4](P10-11)
If we explore the relationship between dance and other arts from the perspective of art genesis, Collingwood’s theory often gives us more enlightenment. And once we return to the analytical and phenomenological perspective, we will benefit even more from Lange. As Lange said: "Only by exploring the differences between various types of art can we truly find, rather than guess, their similarities." [4] (P13) (emphasis added) Understand the characteristics of various types of art. This may be another reason why Collingwood's dance theory has not been taken seriously.
However, the difference between dance art and other arts is not the difference between the materials that constitute their virtual images or expressive forms, as Lange pointed out, although it is said here that " "Material" has gone beyond the general physical entities such as "human body", "sound" and "color", and brings us closer to the essence of art. Lange believes that a painting is composed of virtual space, a piece of music is composed of musical sounds that move and develop in time, and the material of dance is non-material force, but what the dancer creates is a world of force. . This is where the art of dance differs from other arts. It should be said that Lange’s understanding of the nature of art is profound. However, she has neither truly found the characteristics of various arts, nor can she finally grasp the unique attributes of all arts, nor can she establish the special status of dance in the entire art field. Not to mention music and painting, the grasp of dance alone is not accurate enough. Because the "immaterial force" that seems to give life to dance does not only exist in the art of dance. We can also learn from the movement of the music's pitch, strength, speed, and length, as well as from the changes in the color of the picture and the contrast of the lines. Feel the presence of this "power". As non-material force that "exists for perception", it can be felt not only through vision, but also through senses such as hearing. The crux of the matter is how music, painting, dance, etc., create images of this force in their own special ways. The artistic conception created by language art cannot be copied; the feeling caused by painting cannot be replaced by music. Similarly, the image of dance is difficult to describe in words, and the atmosphere created by music is difficult to match in painting. Therefore, for art, what is important is not the sensible image, but the creative imagination.
Imagination is an activity, an advanced psychological activity. And this high-level psychological activity must contain a low-level movement form. Piaget pointed out when refuting that associationist psychology regards representation as an extension of perception: From a neurological point of view, when a person imagines the movement of a body, and when the body actually performs the movement, there is no difference in the electroencephalogram. In terms of postures or muscle patterns, they are all accompanied by the same wave pattern. That is to say, the representation of a movement contains the microcosm of this movement. It must be clear here that Piaget is only talking about imagination in a general sense, not imagination in artistic creation. The reason why we can and must make this distinction arises from our awareness of the differences in creative imagination in different kinds of art. This is crucial for us to truly grasp the characteristics of various types of art. Because when imagination does not objectify its objects through material analogues, imagination is still only a kind of consciousness. This kind of "objectification" is not only the "objectification of man's essential power", but also man's control or transcendence of the world. This is creative activity. Creation requires imagination, but it cannot be confused with imagination in the general sense. Because creative activity implies a lucky discovery and the inevitable process that ultimately completes this discovery. However, imagination in the general psychological sense does not necessarily have to have a specific form, it can be in a virtual state.
So, in a certain sense, artistic activity is a shaping activity. This shaping or manipulation process is the process of artistic imagination, that is, the creative activity itself. This is what we call "creative imagination". A painter always imagines in terms of colors, lines, and shapes, and a musician always thinks in terms of notes, melody, harmony, etc. It is this difference in imagination itself that constitutes the inherent qualitative difference in various arts and determines their irreplaceable existence value. This is a qualitative difference, not a material or even immaterial "material" difference. As Arnheim told us, "Creative thinking is perceptual thinking in any cognitive field" [8] (P427). Art is a form of perception. Therefore, the creative activity of a painter is a kind of visual imagination that is different from that of a musician. It is mainly accompanied by visual activities. Similarly, dance can only be a kind of kinesthetic imagination, which is mainly created through human body movements.
Therefore, human movement is the characteristic of dance. As Merce Cunningham believes, the basis of dance is movement, that is, the human body moving in time and space. The concept of dance both comes from movement and exists in movement. A dance piece does not originate from my conception of a certain story, a certain mood, or a certain way of expression. Its content originates from the action itself [9]. It is "movement" that not only truly distinguishes dance from other arts, but also determines dance's special status in the entire art.
It is difficult to imagine that a dancer can dance based on the "dance score" alone without the help of the body. This is not only to use the mirror to see whether his dance is beautiful, but more importantly It is to experience whether a certain experience is fully expressed through physical activities. Because "the expression of emotion does not seem to be tailor-made for existing emotions, but an activity without which emotion cannot exist" [2] (P250-251). The release of a kind of life sentiment is an activity driven by this vitality. As Arnheim said: "In order to achieve technical accuracy in a certain dance movement, a capable dance teacher does not require his students to perform some accurate geometric patterns, but requires them to work hard to achieve rising, Muscle experience when descending, attacking, and retreating, and to obtain this experience, you must complete the actions related to this experience.” [6] (P622) The actions here are essentially different from gymnastics actions. The purpose of gymnastics is mainly the body, and movements are only means. In dance, the body is no longer noticed, but the movement itself is focused. The movements here are no longer just external physical activities like gymnastics. They have become part of life experience and part of the creative imagination of dance art. In this way, when we watch dance, we see not only the jumping of the body, but the dancing of the soul. The spirit that flies and flows as the human body rises and jumps is the spirit of dance and the soul of human art. "We fully feel the movement, light and joy through the dancer's body. Through the conduction of this human body, the movement of nature also affects us and moves within us. We feel the light full of thoughts.
This dance is like a prayer. In the continuous ups and downs, every dance step seems to be connected to space and becomes part of the eternal rhythm of the universe. ” [10] (P53) This is the highest sentiment of life and the fully free state of the artistic spirit. Dance is the most direct and sufficient expression of this spirit.
Since some advanced psychological activities (imaginative activities , symbolic activities, etc.) not only can only originate on the basis of developed sensorimotor schemas, but also "contain the epitome of this movement"; since artistic activities are essentially creative imagination activities, and dance directly passes through human body activities To complete, then, movement in the entire artistic and aesthetic activities is not "can only be an auxiliary strengthening factor, or a stimulating factor" as Arnheim believes; dance is also in the entire artistic field. More than just an ordinary style of art, in fact, “the artist can only release a concept when he externalizes it through his actions, through ‘doing’. Therefore, the pattern here is the action of the creator who also concentrates on making himself fully present. It is a unique action that we read in the brushwork of painting, the rhythm of music, and the movement of poetry. Imagination, then, refers to that secret yet obvious movement that makes ideas become natural motor functions when expressed in the language of the hand. It exists in a body that is trained and able to achieve happiness" [11] (P70). If it is separated from the body's internal and external activity processes and the personal experience of this action, human artistic and aesthetic activities cannot be carried out. It is in this sense that Mr. Zong Baihua, who has a profound understanding of Chinese art, said: "Dance is a typical example of all Chinese artistic realms. Chinese painting, drama and another special Chinese art - calligraphy, have unique characteristics." The unique characteristic is that the spirit of dance runs through them, and the dance movements show the ethereal space. "[12](P78) Thus creating a flying and vivid charm. Chinese calligraphy and painting tend to fly, and solemn buildings also have flying eaves to express dancing. All this seems to indicate to us: other human art forms are not only Born from dance, and no matter how these arts develop, they cannot completely break away from their mother body. The blood of dance will always flow in the body of all kinds of arts.