Three hypostases of dance and approaches to its study (socio-cultural, semiotic, psychotechnical)

Rozin Vadim Markovich Doctor of Philosophy Chief Scientific Associate, Institute of Philosophy of the Russian Academy of Sciences  109240, Russia, Moskovskaya oblast', g. Moscow, ul. Goncharnaya, 12 str.1, kab. 310 rozinvm@gmail.com Other publications by this author

Dance belongs to anthropopractics and is associated with physicality, the reconstruction of its formation allows us to understand the nature and specifics of dance as a type of life activity ^[7]. Considering the peculiarities of dance, I will rely on the articles of psychologist Aida Aylamazyan, head and teacher of the "Center for Musical and Plastic Development "Heptahor" named after S.D. Rudneva" ^{[1; 2; 3; 4]}. Studies of dance conducted by Aylamazyan, as well as the author's works devoted to the nature of art ^{[8; 9]}, show the following.

• To understand the essence and nature of dance, it needs to be considered in the framework of a broader whole, namely as a component of "cultural reality" (art) and "communication".

• A radical change in cultural reality and communication leads to a change in their components. For example, dance has gone through at least two stages in its development ? classical ballet and free dance, with different principles of construction, and free dance is a response to a fundamentally new situation in culture and communication.

• The intermediary link in the formation of dance or karate is the anthropological plan, that is, the influence of cultural reality and communication first changes a person's ideas about the world and ideals, which in turn begin to change his behavior not only in ordinary life, but also in art.

• A necessary condition for the change of anthropopractics is a kind of reboot (transformation, transformation) of a person's physicality, as a result of which a new type of individual (dancer) develops. A big role here is played by training and formation.

To better understand these provisions, including. why religious actions, mysteries, etc., as well as folk dances were taken out of consideration by Aida, and to prepare material for generalization, consider the formation of classical ballet and free dance.   

Classical ballet, Aylamazyan writes, "excluded any spontaneous beginning in dance, required training and control of movements, immobility of the body and refined coordination of small movements of the arms and legs.... "The century of Louis XIV finally put an end to all 'archaism' both in life and in art, established a solemn and magnificent code for both life and art. Other strata of society, not only the aristocracy, but also the upper urban, bourgeois, stretched behind the courtyard; for all, ballroom dance became a measure, in modern terms, of a person's culture”... ? Ballet dance, ? M. Fokin notes, ? in the form that it took by the end of the last century on all stages of the world and in all ballet schools, it comes down to observing several basic rules transmitted by tradition, without special comments, in a dogmatic form ... the following dogmas of the ballet faith are certainly approved: the legs must observe five positions and all movements must consist in a combination of these positions and be limited to it; the arms must be rounded, with elbows pushed aside; the face should be turned to the public, the back should be straight, the legs turned to the side, heels forward" ^{[1, p. 3, 9]}.

I would also, after Aida, add images of disembodied and flying, as well as a kind of acrobatics that allows the ballerina to overcome the usual limitations of her body (soaring in a jump, lifting her legs above her head, etc.).

Maria Taglioni

Louis XIV, the Sun King, launches the formation of the ballet. He clearly felt like a God and wanted his subjects to see him as a God. I think this was overlaid with the image-the ideal of a Renaissance man who believed that if he wanted, he could become a cherub (angel). As Pico della Mirondola wrote in the treatise "Speech on the Dignity of Man": "Then God accepted man as a creation of an indefinite image and, placing him in the center of the world, said: "... I put you in the center of the world so that from there it would be more convenient for you to observe everything that is in the world. I have made you neither heavenly nor earthly, neither mortal nor immortal, so that you yourself, a free and glorious master, would form yourself in the image that you prefer. You can be reborn into lower, unintelligent beings, but you can also be reborn at the behest of your soul into higher divine ones" ^{[6, pp. 507, 509, 512]}.

 But how was God conceived? He appeared to his subjects, dazzled them with his beauty and majesty, demonstrated life and deeds, after which he solemnly left. It was beneath his dignity to turn his back to the audience, bow down in front of them, generally act like everyone else, usually. On the contrary, his every movement should be filled with beauty and expressiveness.

This was the anthropological image and ideal that, judging by the testimony of contemporaries, possessed the young Louis. At the same time, he understood that he did not live on Olympus, and although a royal person, but still a person. This conflict and problematic situation is resolved by Ludovic due, on the one hand, to art, on the other hand, to the restart of physicality (he puts on and performs dances in which he most often acts as Olympic gods, and trains every day, learning new movements and poses). It is here that the "bodily canon" that Fokin writes about begins to take shape (to be invented), and later a more complex version of it with images of flight, weightlessness and acrobatics. Gods and cherubs appear and disappear, soar, show beautiful faces and figures, perform deeds, as a rule, set forth in myths and elegant literature.

Creating a new kind of dance, Louis XIV, the Sun King, together with his assistants (we would say today, the directors of dances and performances), found a number of new artistic means (music, costumes, scenery, stage, etc.), helping to assemble new images of the body and movement into a single whole ("artistic reality"). Especially interesting here is the role of music written by famous composers, for example, Lully. As a temporary art, music made it possible to organize in time and temporally link new units and gestalts of physicality. How can musical events, free from specific subject associations, express (set, describe) actually "dance events" ^[10].  

As I show in a number of semiotic works, schemas are one of the main tools for setting a new reality. They allow solving problematic situations, set a new reality, understanding and vision, as well as conditions for new actions ^{[11; 12]}. In this case, there were several such types of schemes: some set a new anthropological ideal, others ensured the formation of a new physicality, others actualized musical reality, and others created conditions for the synthesis (assembly) of all realities into a single whole, which later received the name of ballet, due to the script of the performance. At the same time, judging by some historical information, there was a kind of competition for the leading reality, which I called "immediate", and dance did not win the ballet immediately, competing with singing, music, scenery, costumes.

I will explain a little the idea of the realities of the psyche. "Events of different realities (art, dreams, everyday life, science, etc.) are lived by an individual, and this is a condition of his behavior and activity. The events of reality are subject to certain logic and conventions that differ for different realities. For example, in art we allow one convention of events, in dreams another, in everyday life a third, in science a fourth. Realities are the internal conditions of a person's life and behavior, they are formed during the resolution of his problems, suggest switching attitudes of consciousness and methods during the transition from one reality to another.

An important role in the formation of realities is played by "semiotic schemes" (graphic or narrative), as well as the self-organization of the psyche, which ensures the switching of realities and the change of the conditionality of events. It is the schemes that provide a solution to the problems that a person is aware of, they set a new vision and allow for a new way of acting.

For example, the well-known scheme of the Moscow metro allowed designers to organize flows of visitors, and for passengers to navigate in the subway (choose routes, change from one to another, get out of the car at the right stations, and so on). As a result, the reality of the metro has been formed for the Muscovite, in which an individual lives certain events that serve as a condition for his effective behavior. This reality is different by a person from other realities, when going to the subway or leaving it, the individual's attitudes change, the events and behavior he lives change accordingly" ^{[13, pp. 88-89]}.

As a person develops, realities self-organize into a kind of pyramid, the basis of which are the most valuable realities for a person ("direct"), on which "derived realities" rely. For example, for a believer, the immediate reality is God, and all other derivatives, since they are created and conditioned by him.   

Another important characteristic of realities for our topic is this: the pyramid of realities of an individual determines the organization of his sensuality (sensations and perceptions). Our sensuality develops precisely on the basis of a certain schematization, especially it becomes clear in deviant forms of behavior.  "Sometimes," writes the psychotherapist G. Nazloyan, "patients are surprised by the shape of their ear, nose, eye pattern, lips, chin. This is the first way out of autistic captivity, the first look at oneself from the outside, the first attempt to compare oneself with other people without vicious mythologization and dysmorphophobic attitudes that distort the vision of the world in general and the world of human relations in particular. Sergey V., for whom the forehead was a “testing ground”, the surface of the nose was a “launching pad”, and the mouth was a “cave”, eventually recalled this with an ironic smile, as well as the developed delusional system and inadequate actions associated with the fact that he was an Alien from the Future. Another patient, Vladimir U., who has yet to be treated, “sculpts” horses, cats and other animals from his cheeks, and then “erases" them. What is hidden behind all this?" ^{[5, p. 23]}.

As I show, the schizophrenics' vision of their face, and the main sensations are completely determined by the features of the deformed reality, which was formed as a result of the formation of the anthropological image of the patient. The formation of realities in patients with schizophrenia sooner or later leads to the formation of a "pyramid of realities", which is based on a direct deformed reality (it is the patient who is aware of it and tells the doctor and others) ^{[13, p. 89]}. The displacement of the pyramid of realities that existed before the disease and the final victory of the deformed pyramid is perceived by the schizophrenic as entering a new world where there is a different sensuality and events.  So, precisely because Sergey V. considers himself an alien from the future and, consequently, an astronaut, he perceives his nose as a "launch pad" and his forehead as a "space polygon".

I suppose similar processes take place during the formation of a ballet dancer. A pyramid of realities is being formed, including an anthropological self-image, a new physicality, musical reality, conventions and events of ballet as a performance. Not all, but many talented dancers, this pyramid of realities not only sets a new sensuality, but also a special, main world ? Dance with a capital letter. If this happens, a person can resolve many of his problems in it in the form of a dance and, probably, experience catharsis. One example of this is the story of Olga Kondratievna Popova, mentor and teacher of Aida Aylamazyan. "I was," Popova recalls, "a child of terrible mental responsiveness. <...> It was very easy to get to anything, because my psyche was very sensitive, vulnerable, and life is such that… I have been thinking for a very long time, and all these years, and the previous ones (the girls <students> know), I have often asked myself: what did the musical movement give me – support? or vice versa? And only now I can say with absolute certainty: if there were no musical movement, I could reach any degree of mental illness. Absolutely. What is it? And this is the ability to pour out all your unrealized experiences, and maybe this whole life... I am given a real opportunity to speak out. To pour it out, not to keep it all in myself, not to push and worry in silence, but I am given a motor path in this activity to survive… After all, I repeat again: we are not swinging, that I dance exactly like Bach – yes, this will not happen in my life! I'm dancing my idea in Bach, right? Your experience. And at this moment, apparently, such states and such moods are realized, which otherwise I would have had in my soul forever. And they would gradually kill me. That is, apparently, this activity is some kind of powerful breakthrough and a stream that I release from myself. Now I am deeply convinced of this. This is an opportunity to live. And the ability to regulate their states" (quoted by ^[4]).

Karate, to which the author under the guidance of Sensei (Japanese Sensei, lit. "born before", "senior") Viktor Fomin (black belt, seventh dan) was dedicated as an amateur for about thirty years, also refers to anthropopractors. Similar patterns can be seen in its formation. History says that karate originated in China and Okinawa under the influence of Buddhism, the ideas of which led some of its adherents to believe that a person can become as effective without weapons as armed, and this can be achieved through spiritual work and physical improvement (transformation).

Within the framework of this worldview, a new image (ideal) of a person has developed: transforming himself physically and spiritually, adhering to a special ethics and lifestyle. One of the examples of the narrative of such an anthropological ideal is set forth by the creator of the Kyokushin school, the legendary Masutatsu Oyama in the book "The Philosophy of Karate". "In the age of nuclear weapons, electronic technology and wars," Oyama writes, "when small nations bleed for the interests of major powers, humanity looks at collisions of all kinds with suspicion. International conflicts in the twentieth century can lead to too many consequences, and after two world wars, the third threatens the extermination of the entire animal and plant world on earth. It is quite natural that in such conditions, young people strive to master the rational, effective, secret military art of the East in order to protect their lives and homes without the use of weapons ... It is not surprising that people begin to practice karate to preserve at least to some extent the dignity of an individual… In the works of Confucius, it is said that a person with sincere aspirations for both the ideal and the perfect, wants to devote his whole life to this. This indicates that aspirations should be pure and free from selfishness. This has nothing to do with the base desires of wealth, pleasure and popularity. But a truly... attuned person is one who, on the basis of a strong desire emanating from the depths of his soul, strives for real honesty. His aspirations struggle against superficial desires and are aimed at controlling passion. Looking back, I see that I sometimes succumbed to superficial desires. But I have never completely abandoned what I was striving for. I kept it because I was able to feel shame for my audacity, weakness and negligence. Rising from the depths of the soul, aspirations are spiritual demands that permeate a person's entire life, and make it possible to sacrifice for them" ^[15]. The anthropological ideal of karate includes the ideas of strength aimed at protecting others, victory in a duel for life and dignity, the cult of personality and nature, the transformation of oneself and one's body, the way of life ("do", "karate-do") as a conscious self-making.

Having accepted this ideal, I, already at the mature age of Christ, began to enter karate. I quickly realized that I would have to give up not only some comfortable life habits, but also, surprisingly, my usual body. The basic karate stances from which the defense or attack began were extremely unnatural, and even, at first glance, simple physical actions, such as punching, artificial and strange. The punch, "cci", assumed the development of a rather complex new technique. It was necessary to learn how to properly compress the fingers of the fist so that they would not be damaged by impact and even more compressed into a spring. Throw the arm relaxed in order to increase the speed of impact. On the contrary, at the end of the blow, instantly compress all the muscles of the arm so that the fist turns into a kind of hammer (spear). Learn to put the body body into the blow of the hand, thereby increasing the strength and energy of the central nervous system. Imagine that your fist passes through an obstacle, that an impulse of energy is thrown out through your hand during a blow, that your spirit has gathered and put all its strength into the blow. In short, it turned out that it took at least two or three years to master the CKI.

But this is only one element of karate, I had to master many others: blows with an open hand, kicks, blocks and protection from enemy blows, bundles of defense and attack, schemes of ideal combat ("kata"), sparring with the enemy, etc., etc. Ten years later, I discovered that my body had clearly become different: movements were an order of magnitude faster, energy increased, movements and postures that seemed to me at the beginning of the journey extremely artificial and unnatural, became habitual and natural. Health has clearly improved as well. There was also a new pyramid of realities, the architecture of which was determined by the events of training (two or three times a week for about three hours in the gym under the guidance of sensei and independently almost every day at home), the events of kata and sparring, and no less thinking over a new lifestyle and the practice of karate itself (at least, in this way to karate the author was attached).  

      (the author, on the left, and his sensei Viktor Fomin; training in

                               village "Avdotino")

   But back to the dance. According to Aylamazyan, classical ballet was replaced in the XIX-XX centuries by "free dance", which represented the realization in art of a new anthropological image, the features of which were first formulated by F. Nietzsche and V. Solovyov. "Despite all the difference in the proposed approaches, both F. Nietzsche and V. Solovyov justified the possibility of an individual spiritual path, emphasized the importance and self-sufficiency of an individual as a kind of superpersonal. Moreover, an individual is comparable in importance to society, opposes it. And finally, there is a new cultural value and a new problem – the search for your own path, the idea of finding “yourself”, self-expression, self-realization. At the same time, the two projects are opposite: Nietzsche frees European man from duality, the consequences of double standards accepted in society, from weakness of will and spirit, abolishing morality and social values for a worthy individual – superpersonal. In the philosophy of V. Solovyov, the integrity of the subject is achieved through the transformation of the lower nature, that is, for the God-man who has reached a state of special subtle physicality, the contradiction is also removed. But in both cases, integrity is achieved by eliminating the internal conflict between the higher and lower natures of man, between the individual and society.…

We believe that it is in the context of the tasks of “working on yourself” and “doing yourself” that we should consider the emergence of “free dance” as a new type of artistic practice. First of all, a free dance is a dance of one, an exaggerated solo dance, this dance may not need an audience, it is a dance for oneself. This dance denies the rules of the established classical dance school, its fundamental thesis is to dance against the rules. Unlike traditional dances, which always serve the purpose of socialization and unity of people in one way or another, free dance emphasizes the individuality and isolation of a person from society" ^{[1, p. 13, 15]}.

  And again, the realization of a new anthropological image entailed the formation of a new way of life, the transformation of physicality and its new synthesis in music. "Dance and the experiment with movement,– writes Aylamazyan, "are inextricably linked with the "experimental" lifestyle…Pioneers of free dance, such as Isadora Duncan and Emile Jacques-Dalcroze were close to ancient ideals in art and life. They create schools – oases of a new life built according to the laws of beauty, harmony of the soul and body in man, Nature and art...

As for the technique of movement, Duncan begins by changing the very basis of the dance – his stance, that is, the way to maintain the body vertically. The stand is the beginning of the dance, but it is also the potency of all possible and permissible movements, it is the definition of the way to perform all movements. The stand gives color and that unique plastic intonation that we feel in every dance culture. A. Duncan suggests building movement based on the principles of counterpoint, in contrast to the strictly vertical stand of classical ballet, built on the principle of complete symmetry (hence the requirement of inversion of movements and body in classical ballet). In the first case, the impulse to move, the dynamics are contained already in the rack itself, where one part of the body is opposed to another, which is preserved during movement…

 Duncan also pointed out the importance of having a center of movement (one of the elements of the stand) – a certain conceivable point in the body from which the dance movements originate. Unlike ballet, where such a point is located at the base of the back, in the Duncan system, the center of movement is the point of the solar plexus…

Finally, Duncan changes the repertoire of movements itself: abandoning ballet "steps", she introduces into the dance the natural movements of a person that are intended for him by nature – step, run, simple jumps, jumps. These movements return to their original ease, freedom and grace… Duncan's position is quite clear: her dance serves life and art, not the stage (quite in the spirit of ancient Greek orchestras)…

Duncan's other discovery is related to the changing role of music in dance. At that time, the music for dancing did not pretend to be deep and had to correspond to the rhythmic pattern of the dance. Classical “serious” music was performed in concerts involving attentive listening... Duncan suggests looking for inspiration for dancing in classical, “serious” music... “I," notes Duncan, "on the contrary, was looking for a source of dance movement that would penetrate into all the pores of the body. After many months, having learned to concentrate all my strength in this single center, I found that when I listen to music, its vibrations flow to this single source of dance, which is, as it were, inside me. Listening to these vibrations, I could translate them into dance"" ^{[1, c. 17, 18, 21, 22]}.

The scheme of dance formation outlined here, of course, needs to be specified and answered a number of additional questions. But at the same time, the main plans of the analysis, in our opinion, will remain unchanged and much becomes clear. In particular, although religious dance performances and folk dances are difficult to distinguish from modern dance in retrospect, in fact, they are formed in a different context, to solve other tasks (religious and communication).

 Within the framework of socio-cultural analysis, new challenges of the time and problematic situations, features of the "life world" of a person (it will undergo transformation as a result of resolving problematic situations), new anthropological images and ideals created in the life world and changing it will be considered.

An expanded version of the semiotic approach and "narrative analysis" will allow us to consider schemes and other semiotic means (symbols, metaphors, works of art, etc.), the invention and construction of which is a necessary condition for creating new dance realities and new pyramids of dancer realities ^{[11, p.]}.

Here, however, it is impossible to do without psychological research, for example, the analysis of "modes of the psyche" ^[14]. It can be assumed that living in dance and experiencing dance events is a person's life in a certain mode, conditioned by the dance narrative and the reality of dance. Without referring to the psychological plan, it is also difficult to talk about the formation of a dancer's personality.

Finally, the psychotechnical approach allows us to consider the formation of new forms of physicality and other mental structures of the dancer's personality.      

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