The Role of Fascia in the Semiotics of Feeling, Skill, and Knowledge in Contact Improvisation
摘要
Contact improvisation (CI) is a free-form dance based on sharing weight and momentum between dance partners. From a cognitive semiotic perspective, a key issue is how experienced dancers communicate with each other through touch to coordinate complex yet seamless movements without the need for fixed roles or previous planning. In this chapter it is proposed that fascia, the body-wide network of connective tissue, is simultaneously the main perceptual organ and the physical and semiotic medium between dancers that enables their communication through moving touch and weight-sharing. A phenomenological analysis of the experience of dancing CI highlights how fascia is involved in (1) the feeling of shared agency between dance partners, (2) listening through touch as a skill necessary for becoming a competent practitioner, and (3) the sharing and acquisition of this embodied knowledge through various types of icons. Lastly, the notion of cosoma, a melding of bodies through fascia, is proposed as an embodied complement to the Peircean commens.