Embodiment in dance - relationships between expert intentional movement and music in ballet

2009

Embodied music cognition posits that there is a relationship between the emergent properties of a musical piece and the way musicians, dancers and listeners experience them in their body-minds. Musicological analyses assign kinetic properties to music, under the assumption that the sonic forms have the capacity to activate movement; in other words, that music ‘moves’ us. But, in which sense the movement elicited by music is indeed based on music? These questions are not fully answered so far. This paper analized comparatively musical and choreographic phrases in different ballet interpretations, with the aim of identifying the extent to which these two expressive modes convey similarities, …