Dance is most definitely a language. Humans have been dancing as a means to communicate for centuries, and the different variations and styles can be considered ‘dialects’ of dance in my opinion. It’s even present in the animal kingdom, bees will do a series of complex movements to indicate the location of a food source. We spoke about dance being a medium to retell stories of hunting or warfare, and how modern dance has evolved to become very elegant and refined.
Dancing has been used to tell stories in other cultures, such as the hula dancers of Hawaii, where different gestures represent different parts of the story. The Alvin Ailey dancers could convey a range of feelings, like hopeful yearning and extreme happiness, just by changing their rhythm or movements. Taking a stooped stance would emanate a sense of weight and responsibility, while dancing with fans and holding their backs upright would make create the opposite effect. Dance is one of the oldest means of communication, and can definitely be considered a language.
