NE4 9LJ
31/07/08
Dear Dr. Lewis,
I would like to
thank you for the £200 Lisa Ullmann Travelling
Scholarship Fund that I received recently. Following are the details of the
project for which I received your support. My report and supporting material
are attached also, as requested.
22nd
World Congress on Dance Research
02/07/08 –
06/07/08
Dora Stratou
Dance Theatre,
The purpose of my
project to attend the Congress and present a 20-minute lecture was completed
successfully. Although I found the 5-day Congress to be an intense learning
experience, there were still some negative issues that I have outlined in my
attached report. Having received positive feedback from my lecture presented
during the Congress I now intend to make contact with relevant art, science and
humanities departments of Universities within the northeast in order to arrange
further opportunities to present my lecture.
Yours sincerely,
Helen Williams.
22nd WORLD CONGRESS ON DANCE
RESEARCH PROJECT
REPORT
When I first
found out about the 22nd World Congress on Dance Research, an annual
event held in
Something I can laugh at now is that just before leaving for
However, this fact did not change the preparations I had
already made before the Congress, in writing up my lecture, printing business
cards to distribute, and assembling my mental state ready for the professional
settings that I would find myself in. Consequently, my lecture was received
extremely well, I made some excellent professional contacts from
Before going to the Congress, I thought it might be a good
idea in the future to return annually in order to give follow-ups of my
research developments. Organised by the International Dance Council and UNESCO,
I discovered however that this Congress is actually just one of many
established by them that take place in a variety of countries, some of which
focus more specifically on certain dance genres. With this knowledge, my
intention now is to attend these different Congresses, giving me the
opportunity to get a glimpse of the host country’s dance scene and access more
diverse professional contacts.
The main contacts I made within the Congress were Vongku Pak (a traditional Korean drummer from
Over the next couple of months I will be making contact with
relevant art, science and humanities departments of Universities in the
northeast in order to arrange further opportunities to present my lecture and
lead debate on the topic of human communication. Having now already gone
through the process of presenting my lecture and receiving some feedback, I
realise what I need now is a greater amount of feedback and access to more
professionals in the field of human communication research.
Following is a copy of my lecture. Please feel free to
publicize it on your website.
Helen Williams
Researcher – Choreographer – Director
matterinmotion@article19.co.uk
(+44) 785 225 6161
BODY LANGUAGE AND THE EVOLUTION OF HUMAN COMMUNICATION
The question of
“what is dance?” can prove to be about as debilitating as the great question of
“what is art?” For dance and art can be and not be many
things, depending on the individual’s perceptions. What I do believe we
can all come close in agreeing with is that dance is a language, in that it is
a form of communication. Particular to the language of dance is that it uses
the physical body as its tool of expression - a body language, so to speak.
Back in 2004,
after having already spent much of my career as a dancer, I began to feel as if
my body was being held in a constant dance. I became especially aware and
intrigued by my body’s natural movements during such tasks as cooking and
cleaning, standing in a queue, and even by the positions I would find myself in
during sleep. After initiating my own research into the basis of these
movements, I discovered that what I was encountering was what is labelled today
as nonverbal communication, in layman’s terms – body language. The concept of
body language suggests that as we carry out our every day activities, no matter
how ordinary or specialised, social or solitary they are, we are still bearing
thoughts, intentions and emotions within our bodies that become unavoidably and
spontaneously conveyed through all of our movements.
Body language, as
dance or nonverbal communication, is particular to every member of the human
race. However, due to our preference and capacity for verbal communication
during recent human evolution, there now exist over
5000 spoken languages, without much acknowledgement to our continued expression
of body language. This accumulation of spoken languages highlights our amazing
vocal creativity, nevertheless, it doesn’t help us when it comes to
international politics, and almost seems to separate us as a race rather than
unify us.
As the field of
communication research continues to gain increasing attention, it is bringing
to light our need to seek answers to urgent social problems, such as health,
inequality, digital divides, workplace interactions, cultural development and
preservation, respect for diversity, and relation among nations. And while
globalisation is being reinforced, its success for
which we are completely reliant upon our communicative skills, the questions I
would like to ask are these:
- What was the role of body language in
the evolution of human communication?
- What is the role of body language in
society today?
- And through the rediscovery and
nurturing of human body language, is it possible that we might introduce a
greater unity and peace back into our nations?
There is a theory
that the answer to a question may lie in its root, so let us first consider the
roots of human communication.
Around 5 million
years ago our hominid ancestors were actively discovering their surroundings,
making use of their developing hand-eye coordination, depth perception, and
balance in order to select the most appropriate dwelling on the forest floor,
or remove the tastiest leaf from the best branch. Their choice to live in small
groups as a mutual defence against predation meant that sociality became the very
core of their existence, as it still is in society today. This sociality became
what Robin Dunbar called our “principal evolutionary strategy.” In other words,
if our hominid ancestors had not chosen to share and cooperate within such
communities, evolution would not have brought us to where we are today.
And so the
hominid social life of 5 million years ago was expressed through a constant
sense of busy-ness, in which every waking moment had
something of significance going on. “Here is a grooming, there a squabble that
is sorted out by an ally, elsewhere a subtle deception – the whole welded
together by a constant watchfulness, taking in who-is-doing-what-with-whom.” (
As their
geographical surroundings of 5 million years ago began to alter due to powerful
seismic activity, our hominid ancestors found themselves being forced out of
the trees and onto the open savannahs. These tall grasses immediately minimised
their visual scope, however their group size forced them to keep moving in
order to locate food sources, and so they bravely struggled onwards. Over the 2
million years that followed, evolution resolved this problem by bringing new
physical adaptations to the hominids. The most important of these was the
ability for bipedal locomotion, which gave them a little added height and a
more economical way of moving around. This new and still evolving feature also
helped them to explore much greater areas of their surrounding land, which in
turn increased their knowledge of, and sensitivity to nature.
Communication
played a vital part as they communally considered the world in which they
lived. And as walking on two feet gave immediate freedom to their upper limbs,
their vocal grunts and noises could now be accompanied by expressive movements
of the hands and arms. It was by these gestures of the upper body through which
they were able to express power, affection, warning, hunger, aggression,
enquiry, determination, and much more.
And
so human evolution continued, bringing with it the appearance of a newly
emerging genus. As the
first to be given the name of Homo, Homo habilis, or
‘handy man’, displayed the beginnings of a slow increase in brain size.
Cognitively, the birth of what psychologists call a “Theory Of
Mind” also occurred, leading the way to the ability for empathy and better
consideration of one another.
As hominid
technology began with the creation of the first stone tools, manual
manipulation increased in strength and dexterity. The making of tools was an
important part of their daily activities, during which their minds could ponder
on matters that were beyond the ‘here and now’. While searching for meat to
scavenge, their upper limbs and torso were pushed to their physical limits as
they threw a rock to ward off predators, wrestled with an animal, or tore away
at meat. While gathering and selecting edible plants and fruits their hand-eye
coordination and various hand grasps were compelled to continue in their
developments. All of these physical pressures on the hands and arms further
impacted and informed the style, meanings, and interpretations of the
communicational body language that continued to evolve between them.
This lifestyle of
scavenging and gathering, combined with the usage of simple stone tools
continued for almost another million years without much change. Even though the
hominid brain was continuing to increase, they didn’t yet have the ability to
imagine, to think or create something beyond the known. However, just the fact
that they were surviving amid a land and climate that was often harsh and
unforgiving was a feat in itself. The most important matter of the day to them
was the survival of the group. Harmony and understanding played a key role in
this, and although communication continued through simple noises, facial
expressions, and upper limb movements, a body language was nevertheless
evolving.
By 1.5 million
years ago, our ancestors were evolving more rapidly, especially with regards to
their brain size. The brain also began to alter its structure, bringing more
prominence to the frontal lobe, an area that is mostly active during planning,
coordinating, controlling and executing behaviour. They were truly beginning to
understand the world within which they lived, finding ways in which to control
it through the use of better technology and skilled hunting. In their
communications, through a much clearer understanding of one another, they were
now able to express something about one friend to another friend, therefore
maintaining a different representation of the world that was not directly
observable. This was an important step towards symbolic thinking, and although
we know from archaeological evidence that the hominid was not yet physically
constructed for true speech, language was building and becoming more elaborate
through specific movements and more complex sounds.
During the time
that followed until the appearance of our own species, Homo sapiens sapiens, our ancestors continued to be challenged by new
obstacles, such as the drastic climate changes that brought ice to the north
and drought in the south. However, they were now becoming astutely observant of
their surroundings and growing confident in their ability to
problem-solve. Fire was discovered and
mastered, and most importantly, they learnt how to be resourceful, how to
prepare for the morrow.
Communication was
no longer just about displaying emotions and social bonds. Names had to be
given to the animals and plants. Intentions needed to be expressed. Hunts
needed to be well planned. Though of course the social gossip still avidly
continued, especially during the evenings that were
now lengthened by the gatherings that took place around a night-fire.
Experts in the
field of language evolution believe that true verbal language wasn’t in place
until around 50,000 years ago, accompanied by the visible appearance of
symbolic thinking and art. And yet our ancestors survived together to
successfully evolve through 5 million years of life that was very often ‘touch
and go’. They had found their own ways to communicate all that they needed and
felt within the mental and physical boundaries that had been given to them.
They had learnt to share, to cooperate, to listen, and to talk, all through a
language that had inherently relied upon the nonverbal - that of body
language.
So returning to
my original questions - What was the role of body language in the evolution of
human communication? What is the role of body language in society today? And
through the rediscovery and nurturing of human body language, is it possible
that we might introduce a greater unity and peace back into our nations? -
Although some of these questions are today being answered to a certain extent,
it has mostly been through academic research and observation
of nonverbal communication that such answers have been reached. What I
propose is to bring a new method of research to the field of human
communication, using dance and physical movement to explore the vocabulary of
body language and its role in society, both past and present. As an art form,
dance not only brings a creative approach to the research, but also adds a
direct angle of access in that the field of body language would be explored by
the vocabulary of body language itself. Consequentially, this approach can then
inform and be informed by the other methods of human communication research
that continue to develop.
I have so far
completed several small research projects along this journey, during which I
have taken on the role of choreographer, researcher and director. Some of these
projects have been managed in collaboration with various science or art centres
(such as the International Centre for Life in
Bibliography
Knapp, M. L. & Hall, J. A. (1997) Nonverbal
Communication in Human Interaction 4th Ed. Holt, Rinehart and
Winston, Inc.
Gibson, K. R. & Ingold,
T. ed. (1993) Tools, Language and Cognition in
Corballis,
M. C. (2002) From Hand to
Dunbar, R. (1996) Grooming,
Gossip and the Evolution of Language Faber and Faber Ltd.
With thanks to the Lisa Ullmann
Travelling Scholarship Fund for supporting the travel cost of this project, and
Arts Council