Moving through silence in dance: A neural perspective

The word "silence" typically refers to the auditory modality, signifying an absence of sound or noise, being quiet. One may then ask: could we attribute the notion of silence to the domain of dance, e.g., when a movement is absent and the dancer stops moving? Is it at all useful to think in terms of silence when referring to dance? In this chapter, my exploration of these questions is based on recent studies in brain research, which demonstrate the remarkable facility of specific regions in the human brain to perceive visually referred biological and, in particular, human motion, leading to prediction of future movements of the human body. I will argue that merely ceasing motion is an insufficient condition for creating a perception of silence in the mind of a spectator of dance. Rather, the experience of silence in dance is a special situation where the static position of the dancer does not imply motion, and is unlikely to evoke interpretation of the intentions or the emotional expression of the dancer. For this to happen, the position of the dancer, while being still, should be held effortlessly, aimlessly, and with a minimal expression of emotion and intention. Furthermore, I suggest that dynamics, repetitive movement (such as that of Sufi whirling dervishes), can also be perceived as silence in dance because of the high level of predictability and evenness of the movement. These moments of silence in dance, which are so rare in our daily lives, invite us to experience the human body from a new, "out of the box" perspective that is the essence of all the arts.