Reception of Dance

The reception of dance is important

it is clear that the cultural specificity of the production of a dance work needs to be taken into account by the audience. How a dance work is read will contribute to its meaning, since we cannot assume that a specific meaning is intrinsic to the text. (Adair, Christy, 1992. p.64)

An audience member understands the meaning of a dance from looking into the story in more detail instead of just looking into the text.

Audience Reception

When trying to communicate a story or your idea to an audience you have to remember that -whilst our intention to communicate and what we intend to communicate are both important to us as individuals, meaning cannot be reduced to authorial 'intention'. (Daniel Chandler. 2014)- so what you want to communicate isn’t always received that way by an audience.

“Can theatre exist without an audience?” “At least one spectator is needed to make it a performance” (Jerzy Grotowski (1968, p. 32))

I can take any empty space and call it a bare stage. A man walks across this empty space whilst someone else is watching him, and this is all that is needed for an act of theatre to be engaged (Peter Brook (1968, p.11))

This are quotes from 2 influential people emphasising the importance and crucial part the audience play in relation to the show.

Comparing read a book or reading dialogue to performing show similarities because “we engage with books and performances, though the dominant element of books –language- is only one element of performance.” (Mille Taylor, Dominic Symonds 2014. P.45) This already shows with just dialogue there is only a basis for a performance but with other elements added to the dialogue we can see a full performance and connect to it as an audience member.

As performance moves away from or beyond language (embracing, for example, the beguiling power of music or the physical grace of dance), those similarities diminish. (Mille Taylor, Dominic Symonds 2014. P.45)

This is yet again saying we see difference between a performance with just dialogue and a performance with music or dance. And each individual audience member will either prefer one or the other it is just a matter of opinion. This is what I have released after further research.

The idea of ‘reading’ the performance is one that privileges the script, the playwright and a certain form of literary theatre. It’s worth considering other metaphors, and how those might affect the way in which we conceptualize performance. (Mille Taylor, Dominic Symonds 2014. P.45)

This is explaining that through the performance you can read the performance or the story and read the writers intention for the performance. And when looking at certain aspects of the musical in more detail can affect your overall view of the performance and can affect the way you would interpret something.

Languages of the stage, implying that we interpret or translate the elements of performance; alternatively, we could see our study as a science which seeks hard facts or truths, some sort of empirical understanding of a performance. (Mille Taylor, Dominic Symonds 2014. P.45)

I feel everyone interprets and translates elements of performances for themselves to understand and be able to relate to. Although I feel some people prefer to know exactly what the performance is about and the main meaning that has been given to the story instead of creating the meaning up for the performance after watching it.

But is our relationship with musical theatre really one that demands ‘understanding’, ‘meaning’ or ‘knowledge’? Perhaps its value is something we sense, experience or absorb (Mille Taylor, Dominic Symonds 2014. P.45)

I feel that each audience member feels differently after watching a performance and has understood different things from the performance due to their personal experiences and things they relate it to. Although these understandings from the performances are absorbed throughout without thinking about it too much. “Do we watch a performance, listen or engage other senses” I feel like all of these are done naturally and the audience members connect to performances through watching, listening and engaging other sense. (Mille Taylor, Dominic Symonds 2014. P.45) “Does it differ depending on the performance form (music, theatre, dance) the performance medium (theatre, Tv, radio) or the performance mode (aurality, physicality, mediality)” I feel the way a performance is seen does differ depending on the way a performance is shown in terms of form as a performance being show through music may be interpreted differently to how a dance is shown. (Mille Taylor, Dominic Symonds 2014. P.45) I feel different people connect different performance styles more depending on that person and what they have been through in their life. “do we have obligations as members of an audience, or are we at liberty to interpret freely, letting anything and everything wash over us”. (Mille Taylor, Dominic Symonds 2014. P.45) This quote is saying do we have to just watch and understand the true form of the performance or can we watch and interpret the performance in any way we like? Do we have to take the performance in the way the writer intended? I feel a performance can be taken or watched any way the audience wants and I like the fact that audience members can interpret a performance how they want. A performance has several different meanings and intentions regarding its audience member and how they receive the information from the performance, Richard Schechner suggests that

performance has several functions, each positing its public in a different relationship: to entertain; to make something that is beautiful; to mark or change identity; to make or foster community; to heal; to teach, persuade, or convince; and to deal with the sacred and/or the demonic (p. 46). (Mille Taylor, Dominic Symonds 2014. P.45)

This is all to do with making the audience feel something when watching a performance in all these scenarios the audience’s role within reception of the performance have different meanings due to the different intentions. “Reader Reception Theory is not a single theory, but the combined ideas of theoreticians”, these theoreticians wanted to focus on what an audience gets from the performance and the text instead of what the text means. (Mille Taylor, Dominic Symonds 2014. P.46) “semiotics- the study of signs within a text or performance- assumes that there is a stable meaning to a text” (Mille Taylor, Dominic Symonds 2014. P.46) therefore when thinking about my song performance I have thought it is easier to understand a performance through text

the ideas of Reader Reception Theory invite us to consider how meaning can change. Thus the idea of a text being universal and timeless becomes challenged, and – as this might imply- some of our core assumptions are therefore put into question (Mille Taylor, Dominic Symonds 2014. P.46)

The meaning of a performance can change depending on the audience member and how they relate to a performance, so performances and meanings behind the performances can change due to other people’s opinions, even the original idea and meaning can be challenged.

The success of a musical/ performance depends on if the audience experience a show that they expect and want to see. This is why I wanted to get a mixture of audience members to watch my dance and song and compare them as I didn’t know what each audience member preferred personally. To understand reception theory you need to understand “that there are different social circles: different readers, different expectations and different demands; different readings that different audiences bring to a show” this is showing that each individual audience member understands something different from each performance. (Mille Taylor, Dominic Symonds 2014. P.48) Everyone is different and have different views and opinions on things this why some stories are taken differently by others and is also why some audience members like one musical but other audience’s members don’t like it. In some ways it is saying that the members of the audience change how a show is seen. 

“Meaning cannot be ascertained without a context because the same movement has different meanings in different situations” You need to have a context of a story to be able to interpret a story. (Adair, Christy, 1992. P.49) “The interaction between the performer and the audience contribute to the creation of meaning in dance.” (Adair, Christy, 1992. P.62) This is because the audience create their own interpretation for the meaning of the dance that the performer performs “dances are multi-layered and can be read in a number of different ways”. (Adair, Christy, 1992. P.62) “The power of dance is that it communicates through the kinaesthetic sense which we all have” which can sometimes be easier to understand. (Adair, Christy, 1992. P62)

Like communicating a story through song or dance a story can be told through many ways and in some ways the audience still have to use their imagination for instance imagining the scenery can help influence a story. And through theatre, audience often have to imagine the space.

“To help the audience accept the illusion of reality that most theatrical performances depend on, all kinds of theatrical language are available”(Shiach, 1987, PP.18-19), “these include dance, mime, stylised movement, exaggerated gesture, costume, make-up, music and special effects”(Shiach, 1987, PP.18-19), “ Other Productions use every facet of theatrical language available” (Shiach, 1987, PP.18-19) These quotes explain that to help audience members understand the story or see the reality in the story they use different types of language to express and explain the stories and dance and song would come into this because it is a type of language and a way of explaining the story.

In the opening minutes of the play the dramatist, aided by the director and the actors, can aim to create an atmosphere, a mood, and alert the audience to some of the themes the play is going to deal with. (Shiach, 1987, P.39)

This shows the audience knows a general line the story will go through and it shows it’s important to have a clear message for performance as the audience need to see that message coming through in some way through the performance.

The language is important when communicating to an audience.

In creating a play dramatists write down words on a page these words will eventually be spoken by actors impersonating characters on a stage in front of an audience. The fact that the words of the dramatist will be delivered by actors in a theatre in front of a ‘live’ audience creates an important distinction between the language of drama and the language of literature. (Shiach, 1987, P.52)

This quote is explaining what language does for a play/performance. “What is undoubtedly true is that words on stage have to serve the drama” this is like lyrics serving or helping communicate the story. (Shiach, 1987, PP. 53-54)

Johnson (1980) take 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. 7)

This is saying the meaning of the story or performance lies within the text. Which is why some people understand stories being told through dance. It is also saying that the view of the story can be changed depending on the person viewing it. It tells us this because the choreographer has one idea of the story but the viewer can have a complete different idea. And 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 there understanding of it. (Adshead-Lansdale, 1999, P.7)

To the extent that critics attempt to remain on the ‘surface’ of the dance, and claim to describe it without interposition their own points of view, they mislead their readers (Adshead-Lansdale 1993-94) (Adshead-Lansdale, 1999, p.7)

This is saying Critics looking into stories through dance don’t see a story but this is because they aren’t trying and it is all to do with the way the audience or in this case the critic sees the performance.

An alternative to seeing description as capable of reflecting some pre-existing realisty is to see the dance text as an open construction, having the fluidity and enigmatic quality of art. (Adshead-Lansdale, 1999, p.7)

This is just explaining that if the audience is open to their interpretation they will see what they want to see through a dance and they will get a story from it and see it as a performance.

“A description then becomes a text; other texts can similarly be constructed and this practice sets competing views in opposition or creates complementary structures.”(Adshead-Lansdale, 1999,p.7) the description or story the audience gets from the performance turns text in their head and they see conversations between dancers for example in ‘Movin out’ a duet between dancers can tell a conversation of love and proposal without actual text. This quote is also expressing that because each audience member sees a different story in the performance they will have different opinions on it.