ABSTRACT

Kinaesthesia, or our own sense of movement, enables us to represent to ourselves the corporeal experience of others. This adjustment is particularly important when considering ancient dance, in this instance tragoedia saltata, otherwise known as Graeco-Roman tragic pantomime, or simply orchesis. Dance is notoriously difficult to pin down and is resistant to verbal description. In addition to the five generally acknowledged exterior senses, the human organism constantly monitors its own internal condition via its somatosensory system, which processes information about movement, orientation, balance and exertion. Dance, for the dancer, involves a continuous stream of sense impressions other than sight. For the practitioner, dance consists of a constant synthesis of environmental information with feedback received from within his or her own body. This chapter offers some exercises, which is not the creation of some fallacious trans-temporal rapport, however powerfully they may appear to lure the imagination towards seizing on psychophysical correspondences.