http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sv3tadz5Q3o
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Sign Language a Dance?
The clip you'll see below is a girl performing her final project for her sign language class. She chose a song and performed it through sign language. If we define dance as any form of movement through your body, this is an example of a style of dance. Would you consider sign language a form of dance before seeing this clip? What about after? Enjoy!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Great video! Very entertaining and rather impressive. A few years ago, my dance instructor and her daughter danced to "I Hope You Dance" while signing the lyrics of the song so tonight was not the first time I've seen this done. I wouldn't consider sitting in a chair while signing as a dance, but if you can incorporate it with some moves and put some expression into it, then I would say it could be considered as dance. So, in this case, I would consider this a form of dance.
ReplyDeleteI haven't considered sign language a form of dance before, always a form of communication. I'm actually taking a beginner's sign language class this semester, and one of the things I've learned is that facial and body expressions are very important because they help determine a lot of meanings, either with feelings or to agree or negate ideas. Thinking of it this way, it may be somewhat of a choreographed art form based on communicating ideas and expressing oneself. Using your definition Christina, it would be considered a type of dance. However, if you talked to someone in the Deaf community, I am not sure they would consider sign language dancing since it is their form of communication.
ReplyDeleteThat's a great question, since it is hard to define dance. Anthropologist Anya Peterson Royce has suggested "patterned movement performed as an end in itself" as one possible definition. According to this, sign language would not be dance, since it is performed in order to communicate and not as an end in itself. It clearly has an aesthetic component, though, which is beautiful to see.
ReplyDeleteDeaf dance is an interesting topic we aren't covering this semester, but perhaps someone wants to research it! Although people who are completely deaf can't "hear" music, they do feel it and respond to it, and there are many great deaf dancers out there.
Gallaudet University is a university for the deaf, and they have their own dance company. Check it out: http://dance.gallaudet.edu/
I find the concept of deaf dance extremely interesting! Dance is such a unique art form in that it typically revolves around music yet incorporates so much more. Dance includes culture, feelings and emotions and as such the end all be all does not have to be the music. For this reason I think that it is fabulous that people who are deaf and cannot physically hear the music are still able to express themselves rhythmically.
ReplyDelete