When we saw the Alvin Ailey performance last week, I definitely understood certain messages that the dances were trying to convey. These were more feelings than messages- for example, I could sense excitement in some of their movement, but it’s not like their movement expressed a very specific meaning. Dancing is good for evoking emotion more so than communicating messages.
I do not believe that one could technically use dance as a language. I think a language must be able to be written down, read, or spoken in order to be considered an actual language. Language has evolved so that people have an extremely easy way to convey ideas and emotions to one another. Dancing is definitely capable of evoking emotion, but it cannot express a particular idea nearly as well as a verbal language can. Spoken or written words are very straightforward, and usually do not leave much room for interpretation. Saying “I am angry” basically means the speaker is angry. When it comes to dancing, certain moves can make one person happy, while the same exact move can have a negative effect on someones mood.
