Dance and the Politics of Orality

A Study of the Irish Scoil Rince

Bibliographic Data

ID11223746
AuthorsMoe Meyer (corresponding author)
Year1995
Volume27
Issue1
Pages25-39
Publication date1995-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueDance Research Journal (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0149-7677 • E-ISSN: 1940-509X
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/1478428
OpenAlexW2315581849
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited14

I recently had the opportunity to reread Allegra Fuller Snyder's “The Dance Symbol” (1974), in which she claimed a central role for dance in non-literate cultures: It is my observation that dance is most significant in societies that are least literate, i.e. non-literate... and it is least significant in societies, such as our own, which are highly literate.... I feel that there is something about this pairing or counterbalance of dance and literacy which may offer us some insights. I am implying that dance functions in some cultures, the non-literate cultures, with as broad a spectrum of functions as the written word includes for others. Snyder explained that dance is able to occupy this all-inclusive, central role in maintaining and transmitting knowledge within such cultures because it communicates through what she calls the “dance symbol”. The dance symbol is the outer and observable aspects of the dancer (movement, costume, and paraphernalia) which are, in turn, both derived from and stand in relation to and for a culturally-specific environment, subsistence pattern, and mythic complex

Aesthetics · Art · Concert dance · Dance · Dance improvisation · Jazz dance · Linguistics · Literacy · Modern dance · Orality · Sociology · Symbol (formal) · Visual arts · White (mutation) · Diversity and Impact of Dance · Philippine History and Culture · Philosophy · Theatre and Performance Studies

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