Ben Harkarvy of Julliard sees dance as ” a language without words”. It might be funny to think that dance is often regarded as a language, but to those who actually indulge in it and have made dance a pivotal part of their well-being, character, and vocation, they see it as their second language. Dance can be seen seen as therapy, it can merely be seen as an aesthetic tool, yet what people don’t know it that there is a point when what you are doing with your body takes on vocabulary of its own. The professional dancer has come a long way. There are so many styles nowadays and a result so much ‘vocabulary’ in dance. Modern interpretative dance although we call it modern, has its roots in the oldest dance styles. Its funny to believe that at one point in history man’s communication abilities relied on body movements and gutural sounds. Man in its primate days-i like to believe- would not be so surprised if he were invited to a Modern Dance company recital. The reason dance has become such a ‘language’ is that dancers describe putting their soul into it. Its an activity that many a times is based on improvisation to come up with a choreography. There are always boundaries that can be pushed as Western Dance experiences Eastern Dance and vice-versa. It is constantly growing and its been millenia that the human race has incorporated dance into its abilities for whichever specific reason. In addition, when choreographers create their thoughts come after their creation. They are create and then revise it. Its almost like writing and speaking. We speak faster than we think most of the time. Once we do so, we can go back and ‘revise’. The use of the human body can be equivalent to use of our larynx to speak. The way you speak is a personal aspect of you, and although someone else may speak similar to you, no one can exactly speak like you. The same goes for dance; imitation is crucial to creating and expanding, but no to dancers dance identically. Dance has it own individuality.
