I think that dance can definitely qualify as a language. Firstly, there is the obvious point to make, which is that a dance piece can portray emotion, tell a story, and be used as a means of expression. Through movement and choreography, dancers are able to communicate with their viewers. Just like we purposefully select words to make a sentence, dancers purposefully select a sequence of movements to make a statement.
Language is meant to serve as a system for transferring information between people. Although dance usually does not deal with the kind of information that our everyday verbal language does, that does not mean it couldn’t. Because we have already established the verbal language as our primary means of communication, we don’t need to rely on dance to get everyday messages across. But as Professor Weinroth pointed out in class, people danced before they spoke. This was their main way of communicating and they were successful in it.
The main point I’m trying to make is that people today think dance just means ballet, hip-hop, tap, etc. But dance is much broader than that and encompasses all types of body language. We use body language to express what we want to communicate more often than we realize. A research experiment in 1999 showed that when our body gestures don’t match our words, our gestures actually play a larger role in the message listeners receive. This is because there is something innate about communicating through body language, whereas using words is something we have learned in our society.
