Case Study 1: Melancholy Spirals in Russell Maliphant’s Afterlight (Part One) (2009): Emergence, Expressiveness, and Emotional Import

Through the analysis of this case study the project illustrates how the emotions of the dancer or choreographer are not the only relevant emotional aspect of a work of dance, and how there is no need to access narrative in full in order to perceive a sense of emotion. This work is characterised as melancholy, poignant, and offering up examples of sadness and vulnerability, emotional import which is correlated to the perceptual properties of the work. Gestural movements which carry conventional meaning, as well as facial expressions, are also found to be of relevance and hence analysed and discussed to be part of the perceptual properties of the work. The chapter discusses emergence and expressiveness and proposes the understanding of emotional import as the most adequate for discussion within the experience of emotion in dance.