The Study on Criticisms of Dance Performance I

Abstract

Dance performance is represented synthetically by means of dancers' movements, content, sounds, costumes, lighting and other factors. Also, dance works performed on stage are created by choreographers and appreciated by audiences with their own images in some specific cultural context. Therefore, if the context is changed through time and person, the meaning, effect and images of dance works would be perceived differently.

Criticism is analysis, comparison and evaluation of the fine arts by criteria which are affected by the era and society in which performed. Therefore, in criticism for dance it is useful to specify characteristics of choreographers and dance performances and how they were perceived by the era and society. However, there is no methodology for analyzing dance criticism.

This study is the first step to establish a methodology for analyzing dance criticism. The purpose of this study was to distinguish the tendencies of dance criticism in Japan, and differences between genres such as ballet, modern, flamenco and joint. In order to resolve this purpose, material was collected from The Music and Dance Press through 1996. This is a special journal of dance and music in Japan. In addition, information contained in individual sentences was classified by 8 categories and 34 subcategories. The categories were "Synthesis and Image" , "Content" ,"Choreography and Composition","Stage Direction","Author", "Dancer" , "Environmental Elements" , and "Others" .

As a result the following conclusions have been reached:

1. Dance genres written about in "The Music and Dance Press" were ballet, modern, flamenco, and joint. In those, ballet and modern received the most attention. Moreover, it was found that a few articles selected very many dance performances in Japan.

2. It was found that, in general, the "Choreography and Composition" category had the most numerous reference in the dance criticism's contents, and "Synthesis and Images" category the next most numerous.

3. In comparisons between the four genres, ballet had more numerous references in the "Dancer" and "Content" , modern had more in the "Author" and "Others" , and flamenco had more in the "Dancer" and "Author" category.

4. It was found that, "Choreography and Composition" and "Synthesis and Images" category were the main content of dance criticism. In addition, some categories which were reflected by characteristics of each genre are possible to be valid viewpoints for criticizing each dance genre.

Consequently, it was executed to clarify the contents of dance criticism and characteristics of each genre by means of categorical analysis of information contained in dance criticism.