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By: Sara Antaya
By: Sara Antaya
For some people it is hard to see how their art form may relate with someone else's. For example, take a dancer and a writer. Looking at these two people we might not notice any similarities in their work whatsoever. Believe it or not dancers and writers basically do the same thing just in different forms of expression! Within this research we get to take a closer look as to how these two art forms relate in ways such as choreography, critique and overall how dancers may become better writers such that writers may now see their work as a kind of dance.
For some people it is hard to see how their art form may relate with someone else's. For example, take a dancer and a writer. Looking at these two people we might not notice any similarities in their work whatsoever. Believe it or not dancers and writers basically do the same thing just in different forms of expression! Within this research we get to take a closer look as to how these two art forms relate in ways such as choreography, critique and overall how dancers may become better writers such that writers may now see their work as a kind of dance.
How do dancers and writers relate?
How do dancers and writers relate?
In order for one to understand this relationship happening, we need to take a step back and look at different ways these art forms correlate. We may ask ourselves how can a dancer be seen as a writer? Let's start with a main idea or a central theme. When writers decide to write a piece they often have an overall theme or topic they are focusing on. It can be writing for a school assignment or even writing in their own personal journal. Overall writers are trying to create a piece that will send a message to their audience. On the other hand, dancers do the exact same thing. When a dancer is choreographing a routine, they will also have a certain theme or idea that they want their audience to understand. Much like writing the topics one can dance about are endless. The only difference between the two is one is sharing that message through movement and the other is writing it down on paper.
Invention, Revision and Performance
Invention, Revision and Performance
After a writer or dancer has chosen their topic, there are a few fundamental steps both these artists must follow. These include “invention, revision and performance” (Daniel) Writers will often start their process with an initial draft. This is where they may note some key ideas they want to talk about but nothing is set and stone yet. Dancers will also start with a draft of their piece. They may choreograph a rough outline of steps that relate to how they want the final piece to look like but nothing is finalized as they prepare for the next step which is revision.
Revision for writers is when they take their draft and really cut down as to what is important for the audience to know and what can also be taken out or deleted. Writers may also move sentences and change the order of their paragraphs depending on how they feel. “Revision relies on re-seeing and making changes that arise from a need within the work which also occurs in the choreographic process”(Daniel) when it comes to dancers revising their draft, they are also working on rephrasing and cutting down unnecessary parts of the dance. For example a writer may move a sentence around such as a dancer may move a few steps around. Revision also comes with an important step for both writers and dancers which is critique or feedback. Writers may often send their drafts to publishers who will revise, edit and send feedback back to the writer. Dancers will also receive feedback from coaches or mentors when they perform.
Finally for both dancers and writers, the last step of the process is the performance. For writers maybe their performance is when they release their final draft. For dancers this is when they share the choreography they have created. Often performance comes with a larger audience and other times only a few people will get to see the performance. The performance really depends on how much the writer or the dancer prefers to share. In the end we can see how from the outside it may look like these two people have nothing in common, but when we take a step back and look closer into what they actually do we see just how similar they really are.
References
Daniel , M. (n.d.). Dancing=composing=writing: Writing about performing ... - WAC clearinghouse. dancing= composing = writing . Retrieved April 10, 2023, from https://wac.colostate.edu/docs/books/performing/daniel.pdf
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