Gaga Movement Language as an Expression of Hidden Dynamics of Emotions

Abstract

In the research on emotions in dance, scientists focus mainly on their motor expression. This article deals with the mental conceptualization of emotions in a specific movement practice, the Gaga language of movement, created by an Israeli choreographer — Ohad Naharin. The language is based on movement interpretation of verbal instructions during dance improvisation. The verbal communication system plays an important role in Gaga’s practice. Emotions in movement function implicitly and are an important element of working with the movement and the bodies of dancers. The phenomenological considerations of Edmund Husserl and Marice Merleau-Ponty on the subject of the body, which also influenced the contemporary concept of embodied cognition, is an important factor in considering the functioning of emotions in the Gaga language. The key issue in analyzing the functioning of emotions in the language of the Gaga movement is the concept of dynamics from a phenomenological and linguistic perspective. The purpose of this article is to show that: 1) emotions, although they do not appear directly in Gaga’s instructions, are an important part of a dancer’s creative work; 2) their functioning, understanding and motor interpretation is based on the metaphorical understanding of various aspects of dynamics; 3) the phenomenological analysis of the body are essential to understand the functioning of emotions during dance.