Karina/time perception in dance

Time Perception in Dance

Previous research in time perspective and cultural diversity has left me with wanting to explore more of Robert Levine’s clock time and event time. Clock-time is a way to perceive time as the clock directs it. Event-time is a perception of when participants feel an event should start or end (Levine, 1998). Levine travelled around the world for research and saw clear patterns in preference between cultures for either one or the other time perception.

This binary division in understanding time can be also found in Robert Wiener’s view on Newtonian and Bergsonian time (Wiener, 1965). He explains this contrast using astrology and meteorology. Newtonian time, just like astrology, is strict and mathematical. Wiener describes, “the positions, velocities, and masses of the bodies of the solar system are extremely well known at any time” (Wiener, 1965, p.32). Newton used this time perception for engineering and space, not as a social human system. Bergsonian time on the other hand, like meteorology, is flexible and more adaptable to human experiences. Wiener continues, “the number of particles concerned is so enormous that an accurate record of their initial position and velocities is utterly impossible” (Wiener, 1965, p.33). Bergson emphasised the difference between Newton’s reversible time in physics - where if the movement of the planets was rewinded, nothing would change - and Gibbsian irreversible time in evolution and biology - where rewinding would always cause something new.

When analysing Levine’s and Wiener’s work, both mention two contrasting perceptions of time: one concrete and mathematical, the other adjustable and human. Newtonian time shows many similarities to Levine’s clock time, due to its strict, mathematical and rigid approach. Wiener explained Newtonian time as “the planets are either very nearly rigid bodies, or where they are not, their internal forces are at any rate of a relatively slight significance. […] The space in which they move is almost perfectly free from impending matter” (Wiener, 1965, p.32). The strict and set structure is fixed and definite - just like reading the time from a clock. Neither of the two cases can be altered by external factors, and both cases could be described as mechanical, structured, fixed, strict, concrete and hard. Bergsonian time, just like Levine’s event time, shows flexibility and duration. Wiener compares “the term ‘cloud’, ‘temperature’, ‘turbulance’ etc., are all terms referring not to one single physical situation but to a distribution of possible situations of which only one actual case is realised” (Wiener, 1965, p.33). Levine’s event time is based on a fluid social decision that has no strict duration and cannot be predicted mathematically. Both can be altered by external factors, and both cases could be described as durational, human, social, flowing, continuous and soft.

Time perception in dance also has two opposing sides: tempo, count and rhythm is strict and precise; not analysing the steps and flowing with the music is fluid and uninterrupted. These contrasting perceptions in time within dance are very alike to Newtonian-clock time and Bergsonian-event time. During my ballroom and latin dancing classes I see two types of dancers; those who worry about the steps and/or count, and those who flow. As I would like to teach dance in the future, I would like to communicate dance using a method of Bergsonian-event time to help people overcome thinking about what they are doing.

During my research into choreology - dance notation - I have seen a trend that they are either mathematically structured yet simple, such as footstep mats (Appendix 1), or could be fairly open to interpretation yet complex, like the 17th–18th century Feuillet system or the works of Merce Cunningham and Rudolf Benesh (Appendix 2-4). Many notation systems fail to describe the notation completely. Rudolf Laban’s notation system (Appendix 5) is still used since 1928, as it manages to incorporate direction, body part movement, duration and dynamics of the movement (Griesbeck, 1996). His notations are not intuitive though, and need a key to decode it. To understand the difficulty in creating choreology, I have conducted an experiment - Experiment #1: Basic choreology analysis (Appendix 6) - to visualise the difference in all the ballroom and latin dances I practice. Breaking the dances down into direction, speed and rhythm showed how changing one, influences another. The speed can change the tone, yet the rhythm must stay the same for the dance style to maintain identifiable. Illustrating rhythm also proved to be harder than predicted, as I had to multitask: count beats by tapping on thigh and say rhythm out loud, while dancing, to see how they all overlap. It was difficult to process and capture so much information in a moment.

For a broader understanding of processing information, I have looked into neurology and memory in Opening Skinner’s Box (Slater, 2005). In 1953 Dr. Scoville’s discovered that memory has a specific location in the brain, in the hippocampus, not scattered around as thought before. Patient Henry Mollison was still able to brush his teeth after his hippocampus was removed, but wasn’t able to create new memories. Dr. Brenda Milner continued her research on Henry and was able to identify procedural, or unconscious memory. Dr. Eric Kandel at the same time tested how information travels through neurones of sea slugs. He was able to prove that every time a task is repeated, the stronger the webwork of carrying that task becomes, the stronger the memory, the stronger and smoother the electrochemical conversation between those particular synapses in the brain becomes. This would explain falling into a flow, whether for athletes, musicians or dancers. The more a task is practiced, the stronger the memory, the smoother the task becomes.

What if I were to challange my flow and memory when dancing? Experiment #2: Jive mix up (Appendix 7) aimed to see how much the fluidity of a dance was disturbed when the order of the choreography was changed. I was aware that the links between my neurones would need rewiring, but to what extent would it interrupt the fluidity? As predicted, it was challenging to grasp a flow. Once we knew which step to dance next, the following 8 counts were easy, as we were using our procedural memory. The moment when one step ended, and a new one started, is when we noticed hiccups in our fluidity. Our brains needed to process new information: what is the new step; in which direction will it go? Memory shows to be vital in maintaining flow. There was too much to think about at once. How much was too much?

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi presented his research about flow during a Ted Talk in 2004. He explained how our nervous system is incapable of processing more than about 110 bits of information per second (Ted Talk, 2009). That would explain how new dancers cannot fall into flow when trying to think about the rhythm, tempo, direction and body movement. Csikszentmihalyi continued with explaining how our brains need to feel high levels of challange and high levels of skill in order to be stimulated enough to reach flow. His key points that prove we have obtained it are:

• Completely involved in what we are doing - focused, concentrated
• A sense of ecstasy - of being outside everyday reality
• Great inner clarity - knowing what needs to be done and how well we are doing
• Knowing that the activity is doable - that our skills are adequate to the task
• A sense of serenity - no worries about oneself, and a feeling of growing beyond the bounderies of the ego
• Timelessness - thoroughly focused on the present, hours seem to pass by in minutes
• Intrinsic motivation - whatever produces flow becomes its own reward

Flow in dancing is also dependant of the communication with a partner. Anticipation and trust in a partner are just as important as high levels of challange and high levels of skill - as it is done together. In Experiment #3: Learning a new dance style (Appendix 8) I have taken up a challange to learn the basics of the Swing in an hour private session and try to achieve flow, with a new to me partner. To begin with I focused on the rhythm, moves and direction in a mathematical structured manner. Rigid like Newtonian-clock time. After a while of getting to know my partner, I started feeling the moves and rhythm without thinking what I need to be doing. I forgot about time passing by and enjoyed the moment, smooth like Bersgonian-event time. It is difficult to fall into flow straight away. Firstly, the links between neurones need to strengthen like Kandel's sea slug experiments have proven. Secondly, there needs to be enough time to get to know the partner to build trust on. To reach flow, we need to first experience the Newtonian-clock time to understand the basic structure, and progress into Bersgonian-event time to allow for flexibility.

I would like to combine Experiment #1 and #2 to create a piece for De Player. I would like to perform a jive with my dancing partner during the launch, yet have the audience in charge of the order of the steps. My full piece consists of two live dancers during the event, a floppy disk with jive-suitable music and coded data and a ‘box’ with a keyboard connecting to a raspberry-pi, a floppy disk reader, a printer and speaker. The audience will be able to select the numbered moves - from Experiment #2 - by using the keyboard. The name of the upcoming move will be communicated through a speaker to my partner and I as we dance, so that we do not break our flow - so called a ‘limited look ahead’. This will happen every 8 beats right before one move finishes and the next is about to start. As we are dancing, ‘the box’ will print out every step in the given order using a modified version of my choreology from Experiment #1. I would like to design simplified stick figures to represent the movement and direction. The printed choreology can be taken home by the audience. As my piece is based on a performance, it will be more difficult for future customers who buy ‘the box’ to reconstruct my performance in full detail without knowing how to dance the jive. The choreology will be available in a printed form for the audience to copy. It, like many other choreologies, may become free for interpretation, but will also be supported by extra content in a form of tutorials and movies on an online platform. The aim for the project is not to teach dance steps, but rather have the viewers understand the functions of the two contrasting time perspectives and how they relate to flow.

Bibliography

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Wiener, N. (1965). Cybernetics: or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine. 2nd ed. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Pr.

Appendices

Appendix 1
Footstep mats (Dancing 4 Beginners, 2008)



Appendix 2
Feuillet system (Beauchamp, 2006)



Appendix 3
Notation system by Merce Cunningham (Cunningham, 2005)



Appendix 4
Notation system by Rudolf Benesh (Benesh, 2006)



Appendix 5
Notation system by Rudolf Laban (Leban, 1998)