This question reminds me of the question of whether music is a language. For a second, I considered taking that post and replacing the word “music” with “dance,” and observe how well it would work. But then I decided that the question was worthy of serious consideration. Aside from the fact that such an action would probably qualify as academic dishonesty.
For me personally, dance is less a language than music. With music, although I can’t really know exactly what inspired the artist to create a piece I’m listening to, I am able to divine the mood, the general theme of the song or composition; in other words, to some extent, I GET it, just as although my Spanish isn’t too great, I would be able to understand the general gist if someone is speaking slowly enough; however, if someone is speaking in Chinese, I will not able to understand anything at all through just listening to the actual words themselves. Similarly, I don’t seem to understand very much of what a dancer communicates through his art. Throughout the performance at Alvin Ailey, I often found myself wondering why dancers chose to performe certain moves, why they chose certain moments to be still and other moments to run across the entire stage, why they moved a right arm instead of a left, and things of the sort. But even worse, I am unable to understand the general theme of the work. I can understand the mood, but not much else. While speaking to a friend who attended the performance with me, however, I realized that this deficiency was not shared by all those who watch dance, so I cannot denounce its utility as a language simply because I am deaf to it.
Alluding to my comment about music, I maintain that you cannot say “pass the salt” in dance. (Although I suppose you could say it cleverly in a painting) It is not a language in the traditional form of the word. It certainly has its limits, perhaps even more than music, since it usually relies on the presence of music just to exist. All forms of expression are not languages. Dance, however, is most certainly a form of expression, and probably one of the most expressive, since it requires physical and not just mental exertion. Even if I can’t understand quite what a dancer is saying, there is no doubt in my mind that he or she is saying something.g
