Contribution short abstract:

The meaning of dance cannot always be understood through words. This calls for visual and aural modes of conveyance, also as complement to text and talks. Here bodily fellow-feelings between ethnographer and dancers are helpful even though certain spectacular sensations might defy translation.

Contribution long abstract:

“If I could tell you what it means, I wouldn’t have to dance it” Isadora Duncan is reputed to have said. Most dance is non-verbal and has the potential to convey moods and form that cannot be expressed in the same way, or at all, through words, orally or textually. This impacts both how dance is transferred from coach to dancers, and how dance scholars convey dance through various media: images, film with audio are necessary complements to text and talks, as are apps and links to video clips. Unwriting dance pays particular attention to the senses and to movement. Dance coaching includes metaphors such as: “Dance as if the floor was on fire!” and “Go up like an elevator!” Coaches also demonstrate steps and movements but since they are senior and stiffer than dancers, they can ask to move a dancer’s legs and arms for illustration.

Drawing on my research on career and culture in the transnational world of dancers, the aim of this paper is to explore how my own background as a dance student was key in establishing a sense of bodily resonance between me as ethnographer and the dancers. As one of the dancers told me: “We noticed that you used to dance from the way you watched us dance.” This indicates not only a bodily fellow-feeling, but also a unique trust from the dancers. The paper concludes with a discussion of certain spectacular sensations of dance that might defy translation after all.