The Corporeality of Sound and Movement in Performance

Abstract

We create music and dance with the body and perceive both through it. The performer's body is moulded by the practice of music and/or dance, transforming it into a body with specific structure, competencies, and consciousness. The body of a performer is thus not any human body but a cultural body with particular physical skills and a heightened awareness of corporeality. Furthermore, dance and music often occur simultaneously and can intertwine to the point of being inseparable. Even when music occurs without dance, body movement is still involved in its performance, and dancers may also produce sound. This article investigates the bodily basis of music and dance as well as the significance of human corporeality in choreomusical interrelations. Drawing from interdisciplinary perspectives, it presents a cross-cultural approach for choreomusical analysis that does not a priori divide music and dance into two separate categories, but proceeds from the corporeal practices of music making and dancing.