Rethinking Dance Theory Through Semiotics
Rethinking Dance Theory Through Semiotics

Summary/Abstract: Advancements on dance theory have often been linked to its association withother fields of inquiry. As one of the main interests of dance theory is the discussionof dance as a language, fields that are related to the study of languagespresent vast options for research. In this paper, linguistics is discussed to offeran understanding of the idea of language that allows for its consideration in thedance phenomenon, which is then taken further with the systematic approachof semiotics to its structures of representation. Through Peirce’s studies of howsigns work, present themselves and articulate, it is possible to organise the differentforms of access audiences have to the contents transmitted by dance,which, as it is demonstrated here, greatly prefer non-symbolic constructions,thus making the approach to the interpretation through the comparison to verballanguages harder and many times less fruitful then expected. Advancing dancetheory through semiotics is an enterprise very little diffused at this point, but it isalso one that has offered many good provocations such as the characterisationof the dance sign as an index through its corporal construction, the analysis ofthe multiple forms of presentation of the fundament in the dance sign and the understandingof the multiple forms of the communication of dance as a language.

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