ABSTRACT
In the creation, performance and appreciation of contemporary dance we find a microcosm of cognition. Contemporary dance is at once nonverbal, communicative, and expressive; it is visual, spatial, temporal, kinaesthetic, affective, and dynamic. This chapter applies contemporary psychological theory to the complex processes that mediate creation, performance, and observation of contemporary dance. These perceptual, cognitive and emotional processes are termed collectively choreographic cognition. Psychological investigations have dealt with dance as discrete movements or steps, and questions of memory and imagery have been unnecessarily confined to codes that are verbal or visual. We propose there is much more. Movement through space is continuous, it flows; transitions are the conveyors of information and form. In an effort to capture the temporal and spatial characteristics, we outline a theoretical approach that conceptualizes choreographic cognition as an evolving dynamical system. We also pose research questions and suggest ways that these are beginning to be addressed.
