Movement is expressive. I've never denied that. I don't think there's such a thing as abstract dance.
Interpretation
Movement in dance conveys emotions and ideas, and cannot be separated from its expressiveness.
Merce Cunningham emphasizes that movement, particularly in dance, is intrinsically expressive and is not just a series of abstract actions. He argues that every movement carries meaning and emotions, indicating that dance ultimately communicates with its audience in a profound way, blurring the lines between art and expression.
In practice
This quote can be used during a dance workshop to inspire participants about the expressive nature of movement.
The most essential thing in dance discipline is devotion, the steadfast and willing devotion to the labor that makes the classwork not a gymnastic hour and a half, or at the lowest level, a daily drudgery, but a devotion that allows the classroom discipline to become moments of dancing too.
I use the computer as a tool. Like chance or the camera or the other tools I've used, it can open my eye to other ways of seeing or of making dances. It's not simply to do a trick.
I think the thing that we agreed to so many years ago, actually, was that the music didn't have to support the dance nor the dance illustrate the music, but they could be two things going on at the same time.
My dance classes were open to anybody, my only stipulation was that they had to come to the class every day.
The theater is so endlessly fascinating because it's so accidental. It's so much like life.
To see the butcher slap the steak before he laid it on the block, and give his knife a sharpening, was to forget breakfast instantly. It was agreeable too - it really was - to see him cut it off so smooth and juicy. There was nothing savage in the act, although the knife was large and keen; it was a piece of art, high art; there was delicacy of touch, clearness of tone, skilful handling of the subject, fine shading. It was the triumph of mind over matter; quite.
We show people that anybody can paint a picture that they're proud of. It may never hang in the Smithsonian, but it will certainly be something that they'll hang in their home and be proud of. And that's what it's all about.
The really great writers are people like Emily Brontë who sit in a room and write out of their limited experience and unlimited imagination.
Sculpture is something you bump into when you back up to look at a painting.
When we paint, whether it is on our bodies for ceremony or on bark or canvas for the market, we're not just painting for fun or profit, we're painting as we always have done to demonstrate our continuing link with our country and the rights and responsibilities we have to it.
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