Julia Kristeva developed Intertextuality

Her invention was a response to Ferdinand de Saussure’s theory and his claim that signs gain their meaning through structure in a particular text. She opposed his to her own, saying that readers are always influenced by other texts (Sophie Novak. 2016)

I feel through watching performances you as an audience would attach a meaning to a sign or gesture when watching that gesture within a performance, it is easier when structured to attach a meaning to it and it would be easier to fit a meaning to it if there is a text. This is why I feel it is more difficult to understand the meaning of a dance piece compared to a singing piece. I understand the readers are influenced by other texts for example an audience member would connect more to a story if something in that story was relatable to them.

Johnson (1980) takes the view that the ‘warring forces of signification’ lie within the text itself, which becomes a ‘battleground’ where theorist, critic, choreographer, performer and reader fight for supremacy in the articulation of meaning; a useful, if rather militaristic, image. (Adshead-Lansdale, 1999, p.8)

This is saying the meaning of the story or performance lies within the text. Which is why some people understand stories being told through song more than dance. The view of the story can be changed depending on the person viewing it. This is because the choreographer has one idea of the story but the viewer can have a different idea, this is why they would have to “fight for supremacy in the articulation of the meaning” they are fighting for the final story to be their understanding of it. (Adshead- Lansdale, 1999, p.8)

In contrast to this war of signification is the idea of a text as a series of traces, which endlessly multiply and for which there can be no consensus of interpretation. (Adshead-Lansdale, 1999, p.8)

This is saying there can be no final story as it can be interpreted differently to every individual.

“the reader’s activity becomes one of unravelling threads, rather than deciphering fixed meanings ” this would be the audience understanding the story shown through the performance instead of the audience trying to figure out or make up a story or meaning themselves for the performance. (Adshead-Lansdale, 1999, p.8)

De Marinis (1993: 15) embarks on a detailed clarification of concepts of text, both written and performed, by contrasting the written (literary or dramatic) text with its ‘transcoded’ version in performance (Adshead-Lansdale, 1999, p.8)

He shows the difference between saying the lines from a script and understanding a meaning from a performance with no words. In my performances I wanted to show the difference this is why I performed the story through song and dance.

verbal language cannot be the ‘primary modelling system’, capable of translating all expressible content and instead, de Marinis adopts Eco’s stance, that ‘other devices exist, covering portions of a general semantic space that verbal language does not’(de Marinis 1993: 17) (Adshead-Lansdale, 1999, p.9)

This is explaining that everything can be explained not just by verbal language but also in different ways such as dance. “De Marinis’s argument has implications for dance notation as text which he regards as the equivalent of the dramatic text” he uses dance notations in a way directors use a script or dialogue, so you can see the information needing to be portrayed. (Adshead-Lansdale, 1999, p.9)

 “Language is but one manifestation of the signifying process” this is saying that speech and dialogue are important tools when sending a message or sign to someone. This is why audience members understand songs more than dance because there are words to listen to. (Adshead-Lansdale, 1999, p.165)

Semiotics

Language is a main aspect of semiotics which is why it will be difficult getting the story across to the audience through dance compared to singing. Because singing uses lyrics, which I feel people understand better. A lot of people prefer to be told what is going on in a scene using dialogue instead of having to watch movement and for them to find the story within that movement.

Gesture is another aspect of semiotics which I feel can come through in expressing a story to the audience in both dance and singing. Gesture expresses the way you are thinking and feeling so in dance you can show this through your movement and facial expressions and you can do the same in singing as you need to express yourself not just through words.

Music is a main aspect of semiotics and this is relevant as I will have music to dance and sing to. Although the music its self doesn’t actually tell the story it helps the audience connect and feel something for the story. Music is very important when creating an atmosphere for emotion it holds value.

Semiotics were originally called ‘signs’. Facial expressions are signs “for instance, a frown would be a sign of disapproval” (Van Leeuwen, T. 2004 Pg3). “Signs were said to be the union of a signifier – an observable form such as a certain facial expression” so when performing this dance if I feel happy the signifier would be happy and this sign would be shown by making a facial expression that shows happy. (Van Leeuwen, 2004 Pg3) A signified is the meaning of something for example disapproval, this is like when you frown you want to express disapproval. I feel I will show this clearly in my performances as I am very good at expressing what I am feeling through facial expressions.

Semiotics is communication through signs or gestures. This is something I tried to show through my dance I tried to communicate my story without words or dialogue and just through movement or gesture.

“Semiotics is an investigation into how meaning is created and how meaning is communicated” this relates to performance because it’s how the meaning of a performance would be communicated to an audience. (signsalad. 2013)

Semiotics in a performance means there is already a meaning and it is being shown in signs. This is what I did with the dance performance I had a story/ meaning and communicated it through signs and movements but I let the audience interpret the performance and didn’t restrict them to only understanding my meaning to the performance.

Subjectivity

This book provides frameworks for exploring space and subjectivity in a range of selected examples of postmodern dance. Readings appro-priate to the choreography are posited but these are not intended as definitive. (Briginshaw, V. A. 2009. pg7)

This is when putting subjectivities and a story into a dance/ performance to create a meaning although when others see this performance they create their own meaning as the meaning isn’t intended as definite.

They do not exclude other readings, on the contrary, my explorations of the dance, read through particular theories, are intended to open up the dances for further readings. (Briginshaw, V. A. 2009. pg7)

This means performances like the dance I did are open for interpretation and for the spectators to create their own meaning for them.

Pina Bausch

confronts issues of subjectivity, identity and embodiement head on. The impact of her choreographic imagery is enhanced in many of her dances by the particular kinds of resonant spaces she creates on stage. (Briginshaw, V. A. 2009. p8)

She uses subjectivity in her work by using imagery in her choreography.

“ways of rethinking and challenging traditional notions of subjectivity to make room for subject positions that are currently excluded become possible.” (Briginshaw, V. A. 2009. p.20) This means that even though I set a specific meaning and story to my performance it doesn’t mean other stories or meanings can’t be taken from the same performance. When reading the feedback sheets from the spectator’s one spectator got a different story from the performance all together. She created a story from what she saw from the dance by using her own imagination. Even though I had no intention of making my story open for interpretation it gave the spectators more to receive from the performance. And even though I based the performance of the dance on the story I gave it, it didn’t mean the audience couldn’t take the story in another direction.

Representation is created through the logic of visualization. It is dependent on a particular way of seeing the world where what is created in terms of an art or dance work is believed to re-present some sort of metaphysical ‘meaning’ or ‘truth’, which can be discovered and shared by an audience. (Payne, M. 1993 p.184)

Representation is used in various performances when taking a certain meaning or story and telling it in a different way. With my performance the audience represented it from the story I was originally telling them. As it says in this quote you need to visualise something to re-present it, and with my performance I had to show a performance for the audience to get a story from it. And it also explains that in a performance or piece of art to re-present it would be to tell the meaning of it which can be discovered by an audience as my performance was.