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Research in Dance Education

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Movement and meaning: an enquiry into the signifying properties of Martha Grahams Diversion of Angels (1948) and Merce Cunninghams Points in Space (1986)
Henrietta Lilian Bannerman
a a

London Contemporary Dance School, London, UK

Version of record first published: 13 Apr 2010

To cite this article: Henrietta Lilian Bannerman (2010): Movement and meaning: an enquiry into the signifying properties of Martha Grahams Diversion of Angels (1948) and Merce Cunninghams Points in Space (1986), Research in Dance Education, 11:1, 19-33 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14647891003639756

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Research in Dance Education Vol. 11, No. 1, March 2010, 1933

Movement and meaning: an enquiry into the signifying properties of Martha Grahams Diversion of Angels (1948) and Merce Cunninghams Points in Space (1986)
Henrietta Lilian Bannerman*
London Contemporary Dance School, London, UK
hlbannerman@aol.com Dr 0 100000March 2010 11 henriettabannerman 2010 & Francis Original in Dance 1464-7893 Francis ResearchArticle Education 10.1080/14647891003639756 CRID_A_464484.sgm Taylor and (print)/1470-1111 (online)

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The premise of this article is the usefulness of Charles Sanders Peirces semiotic theory when it is used in the activity of decoding or recouping meaning from pure dance works. It begins with a survey of the field of semiotics and although it concentrates on sign theory as formulated by Peirce, other principles of semiotics such as theories of codes are also explained and feature within the methodology. Semiotic methods are then applied to Martha Grahams Diversion of Angels (1948) and Merce Cunninghams Points in Space (1986) to demonstrate how the semiotician gleans several layers of meaning from choreography which at first sight may appear to communicate little beyond the qualities of the dance for its own sake. Keywords: western; theatre; dance; semiotics; Charles Sanders Peirce; Roland Barthes; Martha Graham; Merce Cunningham

The purpose of this article is to examine and apply semiotic theory in order to demonstrate how we can deepen our understanding of the communicative properties of dance. It is written in the belief that dance is much more capable of transmitting meaning which is extra to dance itself if it is treated by its creators and viewers as semiotic or sign bearing. As an art form, dance combines a plethora of images, sounds and to some extent written or spoken words, and constitutes, therefore, what Roland Barthes refers to as a complex signifying system (1967, 39). There is a call, I suggest, for a greater engagement, both from the perspectives of creators and viewers of dance, with methods and models of analysis based on semiotics. I also contend that the conjoining of dance and semiotics is under-researched territory, especially in relation to the theories of the American philosopher Charles Sanders Peirce (18391914). It must be acknowledged, however, that dance scholars have utilised aspects of semiotic theory to create models for the interpretation of dance. Notable amongst them is Susan Foster in Reading Dancing (1986) although most of Fosters coverage of sign theory and its application to dance appears in note form to the various chapters at the back of the book. In their article Dance and Gender: Formalism and Semiotics Reconsidered (1994), Jordan and Thomas draw on a set of theories provided by the philosopher and linguist, Roman Jakobson, in order to reveal the multiple readings available to the dance analyst. Valerie Preston-Dunlop has delved into aspects of semiotic theory (1979) as conceptualised by the musicologist Jacques Nattiez and has also followed Jakobson. In her later writing with Ana Sanchez-Colberg, she has
*Email: hlbannerman@aol.com
ISSN 1464-7893 print/ISSN 1470-1111 online 2010 Taylor & Francis DOI: 10.1080/14647891003639756 http://www.informaworld.com

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incorporated semiotics into a choreological framework of analysis (2002). None of these scholars though has explored Peircean theory which is surprising since Peirce provides some of the most fundamental principles on the process of signification and his work has figured extensively in theatre-based studies (see for example, Elam 1980; Esslin 1987). Peirce is immensely interesting not least because of the unique role he plays in the history of American philosophy (Hartshorne and Weiss, 1931, p. iii). We can appreciate the breadth of his engagement with western science and philosophy when in the Preface to the first volume of his Collected Papers (1931), he writes:
I am saturated through and through, with the spirit of the physical sciences. I have been a great student of logic, having read everything of any importance on the subject [] and have produced systems of my own both in deductive and inductive logic. In metaphysics [] I have read and deeply pondered over all the main systems [] (1, 34).1

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According to Hartshorne and Weiss, the editors of Peirces Collected Papers (1931 1958), he preferred to refer to himself as a logician (ibid, 1932), and as such possessed a system-making mind (1931). Even more importantly for this article, within the Collected Papers, Peirce evolved a theory of signs and is regarded, therefore, as the founder of the American branch of sign theory or semiotics. As I shall demonstrate later, his model is similar to the one formulated by Ferdinand de Saussure for European semiology although I hold that Peirces method is more useful because it is based on a signifying process that is extremely dynamic. Saussures model on the other hand concerns a system that is relatively static in structure (Chandler 2007, 32). Since the dynamism of Peirces sign function provides more scope for the activity of interpretation it prefigures poststructuralist theories especially in regard to the interpretant. This is a concept to which I shall return later in the article but for the purposes of clarification, Peirces interpretant can be thought of as an unlimited activity of sign production. Peirce also introduced the concept of dialogical thought or the idea that the self converses with the self in the way that [y]our self of one instant appeals to your deeper self for his assent (Peirce in Chandler 2007, 33). The concept of the dialogic resurfaced in the 1920s albeit in a more developed form in the theories of the Russian philosopher Mikhail Bakhtin (2004). Bakhtin wrote of the literary novel as a text in which there is a continual dialogue with other works of literature and with other authors and this in turn gave rise to the concept of intertextuality (Bakhtin 2004, 674). I propose, then, that with his overall philosophical project, and in particular his theory of signs, Peirce spearheaded many of the theories which still engage us. I begin my enquiry in this article with a brief exploration of semiotics from the points of view of Saussure, Peirce and Roland Barthes and I will then proceed to apply predominately Peircean sign theory to Martha Grahams Diversion of Angels (1948) and to Merce Cunninghams Points in Space (1986).2 I have chosen these two dances because in principle they feature movement for its own sake. Diversion of Angels represents works in the contemporary dance and ballet genres that do not follow a specific scenario yet present what Graham calls a dramatic line (in Kissellgoff 1984).3 Through the implementation of Peirces theory, I want to illuminate how it is that with only her movement vocabulary presented within a plain stage setting, Graham manages to imbue her choreography with drama and emotion. I have selected Cunninghams Points in Space as a paradigm of the dances made by those choreographers who believe that movement is expressive in itself, in other

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words for dance to be meaningful there is no need to refer to anything beyond it. In my semiotic analysis, I hope to reveal that there are different layers of signification or meaning to be recouped from Points in Space which transcend what some viewers might regard as a mere display of dance technique. I turn now, however, to a survey of semiotic theory. Semiotics The term semiotics is synonymous with semiology or the science of signs as introduced in the early years of the twentieth century by the Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure (18571913). At approximately the same period, the American philosopher Charles Sanders Peirce (18391914) formulated a theory based on a doctrine of signs or semiotics and whilst the French smiologie (semiology) is the term most associated with the work of Saussure as noted above, the Peircean term semiotics is more commonly used by English-speaking theorists (Hawkes 1977, 1234). The general area of semiology/semiotics was developed and popularised in the 1960s by the French writer, critic and theorist, Roland Barthes, who declared that:
Semiology [] aims to take in any system of signs, whatever their substance and limits; images, gestures, musical sounds, objects, and the complex associations of all of these, which form the content of ritual, convention or public entertainment: these constitute, if not languages, at least systems of signification. (Barthes 1967, 9)

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Semiology or semiotics as I shall call it in this article involves discussion of dance as capable of signifying in the way that it is a system of signs and permits an analysis of how meaning is produced and conveyed. Semiotics is a very wide field (see for example Chandler 2007; Eco 1979; Hawkes 1977), and it would be impossible to do justice to its scope and influence in a single article. Although I take a relatively narrow perspective on semiotics, I shall make reference to some key areas such as the theory of codes and Barthes notion of the death of the author (1977). However, I am principally concerned with the work of Peirce and I shall therefore continue by concentrating on the context of Peirces sign system and how his theories are useful to analyses of dance. The sign Saussure treated language as a system of signs (words). He described the sign in terms of a double-sided coin in that it comprises on the one side what he called signification (concept) and on the other, signal (sound pattern) (Saussure 1983, 66 7). Within semiotic theory, the sign has come to be commonly understood as constituting a signified which semioticians agree does not refer to a real thing (Barthes quotation marks, 1967, 42), but rather is a mental representation of a thing (42). Whilst the signified lacks concrete material substance because it is not the thing itself, for example, the signified of the word ox is not the animal ox, but its mental image (43), the signifier, conversely, is a material entity in the form of sounds, objects, images (47). The correspondence between the signifier and its referent or signified is arbitrary or unmotivated (50) which boils down to the fact that, as Barthes explains, [] nothing compels the acoustic image tree naturally to mean the concept tree (1972, 126). For Peirce a sign begins as a representamen:

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something which stands to somebody for something in some respect or capacity. It addresses somebody, that is, creates in the mind of that person an equivalent sign, or perhaps a more developed sign. That sign which it creates I call the interpretant of the first sign. The sign stands for something, its object not in all respects, but in reference to a sort of idea, which I have sometimes called ground of the representamen. (Peirce 1932, 2.228)4

As we can see from the above quotation Peirces representamen or sign is triadic in structure or in other words it comprises three essential elements (Chandler 2007, 29). The representamen is the form which the sign takes (not necessarily material, though usually interpreted as such) and is also sometimes referred to as the signvehicle (29). An object is something beyond the sign to which it refers (29). The interpretant is a combination of sign, thing signified, cognition produced in the mind (Peirce 1931, 1.372) and may be thought of as the sense made of the sign. Importantly for Peirce, the interpretant or signified (mental image, idea) in turn becomes a sign thus unleashing an unlimited semiosis or activity of sign production (Eco 1979; Peirce 1932, 2.273274, 300). We can see how the process of semiosis works in the following example. When we experience a particular arm gesture, say a salute, we can describe it as it appears to us although as this is rather a familiar action we exchange information about it simply through using the word or sign salute. This is because within the mind the action or gesture becomes a sign that represents the salute (object). The interpretant/ signified (ground) of the gesture as sign, involves creating more signs in order to make sense of it. This is a matter of understanding the culture of military behaviour or the conventions of hailing or bidding farewell to a fellow soldier or superior officer. Thus the sign reader decodes all this information through the process of semiosis, where the salute as sign gives rise to other such signs within the context or code of military etiquette in a chain of sign production (Eco 1979, 68).5 Semiosis then represents the way in which the sign is a slippery entity and cannot be pinned down to any one self-contained referent. There is a sense in which Peirces concept of unlimited sign production foresees the poststructuralism of theorists such as Jacques Derrida. Poststructuralists rejected the secure correspondence of signifier and signified as theorised by Saussure prompting Derrida to write of what he called the play or freeplay of signifiers. He held that signifiers are not fixed to their signifieds but point beyond themselves to other signifiers in an indefinite referral of signifier to signifieds (Chandler quoting Derrida 2007, 79). Derridas notions resonate with Peirces interpretant which as we have seen is indefinite or open-ended in the way that one sign leads to another with no ultimate sign referring only to itself.

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Sign/symbol, icon, index

A Second Trichotomy of Signs. (Peirce 1932, 2.247)

In addition to defining a process of semiosis, Peirce also enlarged the framework of semiotic theory in the way that he developed a classificatory system for the sign. In order to make logical connections between signs and meaning, he proposed a typology of 10 classes of signs although most often in his Collected Papers (193158), he discusses the second trichotomy, or triad of signs which comprise the symbol, icon and index; it is this sign combination which has occupied the attention of most of

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Peirces followers and interpreters.6 However, Peirces three types of sign are best thought of and treated as differing modes of relationship between sign vehicles and what is signified (Chandler 2007, 36). Peirces classificatory model can be understood, then, as a varying combination of the following three modes of sign function: Symbol/symbolic
A symbol is a sign which refers to the object that it denotes by virtue of a law. (Peirce 1932, 2.249)

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In Peirces symbolic mode the signifier does not resemble the signified so the connection between them is fundamentally arbitrary, or as Saussure specified fixed by rule (1983, 68). The relationship between a symbol/sign and its object must be agreed upon and learned as in the case of verbal language in general, but extends also to numbers, Morse code, traffic lights, national flags and so forth. It is clear from this description that Peirces symbol is commensurate with Saussures sign. Icon/iconic
[] a sign may be iconic, that is, may represent its object mainly by its similarity, no matter what its mode of being. (Peirce 1932, 2.276)

In his earlier writings, Peirce often referred to iconic signs as likenesses (1931, 1.558), so it follows that the iconic mode describes the signifier as resembling or imitating the signified (recognisably looking, sounding, feeling, tasting or smelling like it) being similar in possessing some of its qualities as, for example, in a portrait, a cartoon, onomatopoeia, metaphors, representational sounds within programme music, sound effects in radio drama, soundtrack, imitative gestures (Chandler 2007, 367). It is important, however, to point out that for Peirce the iconic sign represents its object mainly by its similarity (Peirce 1932, 2.276). This is a complicated idea since for Peirce the iconic similarity between a representamen and its object (or a signifier and its signified) is one of an analogy between the relations of the parts of each [] many diagrams resemble their objects not at all in looks; it is only in respect to the relations of their parts that their likeness consists (1932, 2.282). However, within current semiotic practice, iconic signification is more commonly connected to the notion that a sign resembles its object or in the way that a drawing or a cartoon looks like its object. In the cases of linguistics or music, the icon sounds like the object it represents. Index/indexical
Anything which focuses the attention is an index. Anything which startles us is an index, in so far as it marks the junction between two portions of experience. (Peirce 1932, 2.285)

In the indexical mode of signification, the signifier is not arbitrary but is directly connected in some way (physically or causally) to the signified (regardless of intention) this link can be observed or inferred as for example in natural signs (smoke, footprints, echoes, non-synthetic odours and flavours); medical symptoms (pain, a

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rash, pulse-rate); measuring instruments (weathercock, thermometer, clock, spiritlevel); signals (as in a knock on a door or a telephone ringing); pointers (a pointing index finger, a directional signpost); personal trademarks (handwriting, catch-phrases) (Chandler 2007, 367 summarising Peirce 1932, 2.286). Thus, unlike the symbol/sign proper, both the icon and the index are motivated in the way that they have a natural or physical connection between sign and object.7 One must not be misled, however, into considering these categories of sign as mutually exclusive; for Peirce the sign is most often a mixture of symbol, icon or index (1932, 2.300). Chandler points out that, [a] map is indexical in pointing to the locations of things, iconic in representing the directional relations and distances between landmarks, and symbolic in using conventional symbols (the significance of which must be learned) (2007, 44). Jakobson explains that Peirces three modes co-exist in a relative hierarchy in which one mode is dominant, with dominance determined by context (Chandler 2007, p. 44, quoting Jakobson). This has considerable implications for the communicative properties of dance as explicated below. Sign theory applied to dance We have noted that Peirce did not recognise any of his three modes of sign as independent of one another and under these conditions as Jakobson points out a portrait becomes a symbolic icon (1971, 335). Even though a painting might appear to resemble or look like what it represents, it is largely conventional in its mode of representation (Peirce 1932, 2.276). We might pursue this form of sign theory for dance in order to argue that much of the signification, for instance, in narrative works can be described in similar terms. For example, where a dancer resembles or is an icon of a dramatic character in terms of costume, make-up and so forth, he or she does so according to the conventions of a particular historical period as well as satisfying the demands of that role within a dance context. The same might be said of realistic stage settings. Thus, some dance productions abound in symbolic icons even in terms of movement vocabulary as I shall discuss later, for example in relation to the pas de chat (cat-like jump). Peirce states that there are in fact no pure icons (1932, 172),8 even though there is a temptation to treat recordings such as photographs, films, videos and so forth as such. He noted that not only are these media iconic in the sense that they resemble the object they depict but they are also indexical. For example, Peirce calls the photograph indexical because it belongs to the [] class of signs that [signify] by physical connection [] (Peirce 1932, 2.281). Peirce realised that if the photographic image bears an exact resemblance to its object, it does so because it was produced under circumstances that physically forced it to correspond point by point to nature (1932, 2.281). Whereas a portrait or a painting may or may not represent something which at one time or another had or continues to have a real or factual existence, the photograph belongs to that category of object which, states Peirce, has a real connection [] which may be a direct physical connection with the thing it represents (1931, 1.372; 1932, 2.281, 2.299; 1934, 5.75). Thus Peirce observes that the optical connection between an object and a photograph of it is evidence of that objects correspondence to a reality (Peirce 1933, 4.447). Existential indexical and conventionalised symbolic icons appear to be appropriate types of sign function to apply in the analysis of movement devices such as the Graham contraction. The contraction draws the gaze to the visceral area of the body and connects with the sheer physicality of the sensation as experienced by the dancer:

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Movement done really powerfully can make you feel things as a dancer or as a person. If you take a deep contraction, even if you are not feeling anything particular, that deep contraction is going to create an emotional response in you and giving in to her [Grahams] work deeply, physically would pull things out of me. (Personal interview with Susan Maguire, 1997, in Bannerman 1998, 36)

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Since the contraction is produced from the core of the body, it is linked to natural physical processes and therefore like the photograph is an index. It is also indexical or deictic in that it points to a culturally defined emotional area of the torso thus providing evidence of states of feeling.9 It could also be argued that the Graham contraction is iconic because the dancer looks as though she is experiencing a deeply felt emotion. The precise nature of the feeling expressed is shaped by the context of a specific dance as we shall see in the analysis of Diversion of Angels (1948) which I conduct later in this article. Icons and indexes are unlikely to draw attention to their mediation as signs and appear to present reality more directly than symbolic signs (Chandler 2007, 41). But when symbolic signs veer towards iconicity, they produce instances of onomatopoeia. John Fiske, for example, quotes a line from Tennyson, [t]he hum of bees in immemorial elms. These words or symbols are iconic, he says, because they resemble the sound of bees (1990, 47). Nevertheless, Fiske overlooks the fact that the iconic identity of onomatopoeia is phonetic rather than graphic (through writing). Even so, if one applies iconicity to dance as a sort of visual onomatopoeia it is easy to understand that movements such as the pas de chat achieve strong visual iconicity. This signification is even more powerful if the movement is performed to music that resembles the sounds of a cat. The fact remains, however, that the kinetic and phonic mediums represent feline characteristics in a relatively conventionalised way and in this sense we might propose that such stylised steps in dance can be termed symbolic icons (Jakobson 1971, 335). As I noted earlier, dances are often complex signifying systems where costume and scenic devices interact with movement, gesture, music and, on occasions, spoken text, film and or projections. Such productions, therefore, incorporate the total hierarchy of Peirces sign system and in this equal blend of the iconic, indexical and symbolic characters present what Peirce considered to be the most perfect signs (in Jakobson 1990, 412). As we have seen, the Graham contraction is a hybrid icon and index but since it is now a conventionalised movement denoting feeling, it is also a sign proper (symbol). As a Peircean perfect sign the contraction, then, is surely one of the most meaningful visual signs in western modern dance and has come to represent, or is a sign proper (symbol) for Grahams style of modern dance. Returning to composite dance productions, it can be agreed that they embody a great deal of coded information, and in order to fully comprehend the communicative properties of the various modes of signifying as outlined above, we move on to consider the notion of codes. Codes A code enables signifiers to be correlated with signifieds and as such they act as agents in generating meaning. Codes are at work all the time in society in the way that they regulate social organisation, behaviour and discourse. Language itself may be seen as a network of codes known to its users and as we have seen the linguistic code operates mainly in relation to the laws of semanticity (Hockett 1977, 141), a term

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which denotes the correspondence as learned between a word and its meaning. We might note that there are also sub-codes familiar only to small sections of a languagespeaking community. As far as dance is concerned, this is what occurs in various specialised areas such as the ballet community where the French terminology is a shared lingua franca. On this basis, we can appreciate Sturrocks remarks that the term code has its ambiguities [] what is common to all codes is their artificiality; only those already acquainted with the rules of the code can receive messages in it successfully (1986, 87). Codes, however, are not simply conventions of communication but rather procedural systems of related conventions which operate in certain domains (Chandler 2007, 148). In performance studies there are major codes such as the code of space or proxemics which governs spatial relationships; the code of kinesics concerns movement, gesture and facial expression and the vestimentary code relates to signification generated by clothing, hairstyle and make-up (Aston and Savona 1999, 112). We might also add that special theatrical codes are in operation such as proscenium-arch framing (Foster 1986), methods of staging productions and the terminology for stage space as specified, for example, in Humphreys The Art of Making Dances (1959). Dance performances rely on the kinetic material produced in and through the body as the major signifying element leading to the notion of an overarching code of kinaesthetic. This is an area of increasing interest within dance and performance studies. For example the dance scholar, Jaana Parviainen (2009), draws on Sheets-Johnstone (1999) and ODonovan-Anderson (1997) to discuss the tactile-kinaesthetic sense as a central organising role for perceptions as a whole. Again following SheetsJohnstone, Parviainen states that we learn by moving and by listening to our own movement. We can feel, for example, the swiftness or slowness of our movement or its tensional tightness or looseness that evolves on the basis of the bodily awareness (2009).10 Parviainen is one of the latest contributors to a tradition that stretches back to the American dance critic, John Martin. In 1933 he revived the ancient Greek theory of metakinesis to conjoin the physical and the psychical [as ] two aspects of a single underlying reality (1965a, 13). The terms metakinesis, kinaesthesis and kinaesthetic empathy are used in his writings (1965a, 1965b, 1968) to promote the general idea that there is a kinesthetic response in the body of the spectator which to some extent reproduces in him the experience of the dancer (1965, 48); later he writes of the compositional elements in modern dance and of how the externalisation of such elements can be comprehended by others [not] by intellectual planning but by feeling through [my italics] with a sensitive body. At other times, following aestheticians such as Theodore Lipps, Martin wrote of kinaesthetic empathy as inner mimicry (1965b, 161). He held that we can experience even inanimate objects in terms of our own bodies, projecting our own motor responses onto them (Reynolds 2007, 467). The scholar of French studies and dance, Dee Reynolds, points out that for Martin, response to dance combined sensory and emotional experience, which took precedence over rational understanding, and provided a paradigm for the arts (2007, 47). Reynolds (2007) has undertaken a thorough exploration of themes related to the kinaesthetic qualities in the choreography of Mary Wigman, Graham and Cunningham. I would agree that kinaesthetic awareness or empathy as claimed by Martin, Parviainen and Reynolds is vital to a full appreciation of dance but I think that it is just as important to emphasise that dance, like any other art form, stimulates all the human faculties and in particular the intellect.

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We might nevertheless propose that the finer points of kinesics and proxemics can be described under the rubric of kinaesthetic, the code which as we have noted represents a shared understanding based on a common feeling for movement. In this sense and in relation to the context of a production, the kinaesthetic code interacts with other codes in creating the dance text which generates signification of meaning. These other codes include the vestimentary, behavioural (forms of social etiquette as in the example of the salute given earlier), colour (culturally specific associations of primary colours), and text (linguistic code). The viewer makes sense of signs and the way they are combined with other signs through his/her knowledge and experience of the codes as outlined above and which permit signification of meaning to take place. The process of decoding or interpreting is based on the readers world or social knowledge, their acquisition of textual knowledge (experience of the medium or genre/s in question), and their ability to synthesise personal knowledge and experience with the object interpreted. Some of the codes encountered in a theatrical performance will be recognised as familiar cultural conventions, such as the use of certain types of music to suggest a mood or colours associated with characteristics: red for passion or desire, green for mystery, blue for the sky or more lofty dimensions and so forth. The same codes of course do not apply across the myriad of world cultures but are formulated by and function in accordance with the social context in which they are employed. Similarly, codes that are established or embedded in a culture are opposed by often revolutionary new codes and these in turn are eventually absorbed into societys conventions. In the case of modern dance for example, the rebellious movement vocabulary and styles of early Graham, Humphrey or Holm challenged the accepted codes set up through ballet and the exoticism of Ruth St Denis. The modern styles of Graham et al. were in turn disputed by a new avant-garde in the form of Merce Cunningham. Modern dance was even further radicalised by the removal of theatrical codes when Judson Dance Theatre ushered in a new era of the pedestrian, for which the rules and protocols of performance were altogether rewritten. Whilst the codes as outlined earlier govern dance in general (kinaesthetic, behavioural, vestimentary and so forth), each choreographic mode or individual work within it generates sub-codes specific to that particular dances style or theme. We can see this if we consider Martha Grahams Diversion of Angels (1948) as representative of a style in the genre of modern dance. This 40-minute work is one of Grahams relatively plotless dances and since there is no specific narrative to underpin an interpretation, the meaning which this dance generates arises solely from its signifying elements. The first clues come from the connotative properties of the word diversions in the title and from the ways in which the linguistic and mythological codes intersect in the sign angels. Within the process of semiosis diversions introduces the idea of playfulness, amusement or veering away from the ordinary, well-trodden paths. The word angels in relation to diversion indicates that the viewer is to enter an imaginary or celestial world. This impression is further enhanced by the mood introduced through the lyrical music that Norman dello Joio provided for Diversion of Angels. Yet there is nothing in this work to suggest that the dancers resemble angels. The three leading women are dressed in long-skirted, closely fitting, white, red and yellow dresses and they dance on a bare stage with only a blue cyclorama as background. The kinaesthetic code then governs the signification in the dance but it operates in relation to the code of colour because, as we shall see, the movement is characterised by the colours of the dancers costumes.

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The dance begins as the woman in whites partner raises his left arm with the fingers of his hand spread out as though in the shape of a halo (iconic index). As he places his hand behind the womans head, he points to or indicates her holiness, an impression which is strengthened by her white costume a conventional symbol of purity. Since the halo gesture recurs at the end of the central duet between the dancer in white and her partner, the audience is left in little doubt that she is an eponymous angel. The signification provided by the white costume, blue cyclorama, and halo hand gesture may lead to the view that the dance is otherworldly and concerned only with goodness and purity. Yet there is more than a sense of piety at work in Diversion of Angels. For example, each of the three women presents a particular form of the contraction which yields a different meaning, particularly when considered through the code of colour. The woman in red contracts the torso in spasmodic convulsions; beginning in the pelvis, the movement shudders through her upper body in an index of passionate desire thereby connoting the erotic. On the other hand, as a virtuous, saintly figure, the woman in whites contraction is shallower and more subtle. Her upper body curves smoothly into a soft arc pointing to or indicating a tender feeling contrasting with the libidinous spasms of the woman in red and also with fluid forward folds and backbends of the woman in yellow. As a figure of carefree youth, her upper body movement is mobile and flexible; generally her choreography features jumps and leaps which involve the torso but without any pronounced sense of contraction in the pelvic area, thereby producing indexical signification that she is more romantically playful than sexually motivated. Generally in Diversion of Angels the movement is characterised by at least three areas of sign function. The woman in red a colour that is an indexical symbol for passion and danger connotes daring, risk and eroticism. With her off-centre tilts, percussive contractions and fast runs, she is more demon than angel, but if viewed according to the mythological code, she is also perhaps Aphrodite, the fiery goddess of love. Similarly the woman in white, a role usually danced by a relatively tall woman, is an index of the virgin goddess Athena who presided over the arts and allegedly was tall and majestic (Grimal 1991, 667). The woman in yellow a colour connected with spring and rebirth dances as though her feet hardly touch the ground. She is the epitome of youthful exuberance and with her zest for life and love appears to resemble the goddess Persephone, the eternal spirit of spring (123). Other more conventional gestures that feature in the dance, such as the blowing of kisses from one dance to another and the halo motif as described above, combine with one another to signify passionate emotions ranging from the spiritual to the erotic. Graham is renowned for the theatricality of dance dramas such as Night Journey (1947) and the full evening production Clytemnestra (1958). However the application of Peircean theory to a plotless work such as Diversion of Angels reveals how Grahams rich palette of movement combines with other elements such as music and design in such a way that the viewer derives meaning over and above the pure aesthetic of dance. The proliferation of indexical and in some instances iconic indices that feature within a plotless dance offers the analyst plenty of scope for interpretation. It follows, then, that there may be something to be gained in applying similar semiotic tools to the pure dance choreography of Balanchine or Cunningham even though they are amongst those artists who claim that their works have nothing to communicate that is extra to dance itself. Susan Foster in fact points up the arbitrary nature of Cunninghams choreography although her motive in doing so is to align Cunningham with Roland Barthes notion

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that language or in this case dance acts, performs rather than the writer/choreographer; these at least are the ideas represented in his essay, The Death of the Author (1977).11 As Foster explains, theories such as Barthes displace the act of interpretation from a search for the choreographers intended meaning and instead place emphasis on the viewers active role in interpreting a works choreographic codes and conventions. In other words in the case of Cunningham, and similar styles, the dance itself rather than the choreographer suggests an interpretive itinerary for the viewer (Foster 1986, 242). The openness of this approach prompts the analyst to retrieve more than a surface layer of meaning with a dance as we have seen in the case study of Diversion of Angels. However, it is also an invitation to demonstrate that Cunninghams choreography for Points in Space (1986) is not arbitrary but is motivated or refers to ideas other than those relating to pure dance. As with other Cunningham productions, on a first viewing Points in Space may not appear to represent anything beyond movement for its own sake. Clear, uncluttered and airy the 12 dancers enter and exit the stage, pass in front of us, hover or linger for a while and then suddenly set off on a journey as though summoned by an invisible command. The work has both male and female dancers in abstract figurehugging unitards which are varied in colour and texture. Designed by Dove Bradshaw the all-over bodysuits contrast between those which are shaded dramatically from dark to light in reds, blues, oranges and greens, and another set of densely dappled, camouflage-type designs. When one begins to apply a Peircean semiotic analysis, the variations in colour and text have a physical (indexical) connection with the variegations of colour and texture found in plant and animal life. William Anastasis cyclorama of muted colours punctuated by slashes and arcs of a darker hue is an index of changing weather conditions. John Cages electronic score Voiceless Essay, composed independently from Cunninghams movement and from the designs, enhances the impression of a natural environment or landscape.12 In further applying semiotic methods to Points in Space, I would like to challenge Fosters description of Cunninghams choreography as arbitrary. Linguists understand the word arbitrary to apply to language because generally there is no causal link between a word and its meaning. In language proper a word means what it does only on the basis that the society that uses it conventionalises the otherwise arbitrarily conjoined word and object. Such circumstances do not apply to Cunningham, although as we know from many sources on Cunningham, the decisions taken within his choreographic process are arbitrary in the sense that they are based on random methods rather than on deliberate choice. Nevertheless, I contend that the signs in Cunninghams dances are more motivated than they might appear to be at first sight because the viewer can observe a physical, and therefore indexical (and even iconic) correlation between movement image and meaning. According to the linguistic code, the title Points in Space is a symbol or sign proper yet it also provides indexical signification in the way that it is an indicator of the quality of spatiality of Cunninghams choreography. He has long been preoccupied with the specificities of movement in time and space taking particular inspiration from Albert Einsteins theory that there are no fixed points in space (Cunningham in Jowitt 1988, 28990). Through the code of proxemics, it is possible to retrieve a manifold of spatial indices which is hardly surprising in a choreographer credited with the revolutionary notion of decentralising the stage space. For Cunningham staging dance was no longer a matter of manipulating the viewers perspective to focus on the action taking place centre stage, as he explains:

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the spectator and the stage are fixed. Most stage work [] is based on [] a centre point to and from which everything radiates. But we dont do that anymore []. Ever since Einstein and now the astronauts, weve realized something wholly different about space that everything is moving []. (Cunningham in Copeland 2004, 177)

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Whilst the spatial signifiers are of major importance, I am more interested in the dancers as signifiers because at first glance they seem to represent nothing other than an elite group of athletes. Yet there is something animalistic in the tendency for them to form themselves into groups only suddenly to break apart and go off on their own or in pairs, eventually coming together again in unison passages of dance. These images are indexes for various aspects of wild life such as herds of animals forming, reforming, or quietly grazing, but each creature is alert to the other and to their environment. At other times, the dancers are iconic indexes because they resemble flocks of birds suddenly arriving in the space, testing their wing span as one arm stretches endlessly away from the other across a widely extended scapula. There are other works in Cunninghams canon such as Beach Birds (1991) or Pond Way (1998) which veer towards a connection between the natural world and its animal inhabitants, qualities that can be described as iconic in the sense in which Peirce has described this sign:
The icon has no dynamical connection with the object it represents; it simply happens that its qualities resemble those of that object, and excite analogous sensations in the mind for which it is a likeness. But it really stands unconnected with them. (1932, 2.298)

Thus, even if there is no intentional reference to either human or animal nature in Cunninghams dances, this sense of iconicity is not altogether unfounded especially when one recalls that Cunningham spent a lifetime studying animals, birds, and insects and one perceives a likeness to these subjects within his dances (New York Public Library 2007).13 For example, he wrote of Beach Birds:
I had three things in mind: one was birds, obviously, or animals or whatever, but also Humans on the beach [] It is not meant to be a particular bird, but I used the idea of a bird, and then since dancers are also human beings, I thought I might as well include that. (Quoted in Vaughan 1997, 258)

In Points in Space, the natural world is indicated through a combination of indexical and iconic signs springing from the often intense, noisy activity of the dancers feet pounding against the floor or beating against each other. These sounds and images are almost pure icons of birds noisily swooping and flapping over sudden discoveries of food or settling on a nest. Such flurries of complex footwork are followed by periods of calm when dancers form companionable resting groups, an index of social cohesion, a quality that humans share with some animal species. At other times the dancers become air-borne creatures that soar and hover but make little attempt to land noiselessly. Cunningham dancers do not defy the pull of gravity they are earthbound human beings perfectly attuned to their environment or habitat and secure in each others company. If Points in Space invokes a natural environment there is nothing to suggest that it presents an icon of nature as red in tooth and claw. The fast, furious sections of movement are not indices of violence or aggression especially as the dancers are supportive of and courteous towards one another. Whilst the dance action is always energetic, it is performed with a measured, controlled physicality that avoids any signification of menace or threat.

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The application of a Peircean semiotic model to Cunninghams work reveals that his movement vocabulary for Points in Space is not, as Foster suggests, arbitrary or non-referential. Rather, his choreography embodies iconic indexes of a societal world of human behaviour and endeavour, as well as of life as it is lived by animals, topics which have interested Cunningham throughout his career. Like many other choreographers who have complete faith in the self-sufficiency of dance as an art form, Cunningham steers away from its uses as a story-telling device (Cunningham in Celant 1999, 42) but, as we have seen, he does not deny that his choreography acts as the conduit of any thoughts he might have other than those that involve dance itself. The tools available through Peircean semiotics permit the analyst to uncover layers of signification from Cunninghams dances that may be missed without recourse to this analytical method. As I stated at the beginning of this article there are several methods of analysing the non-verbal material of dance from a semiotic perspective. Nevertheless I remain convinced that a Peircean analysis invites the semiotician to investigate dance with a more strongly motivated interpretative activity. This is particularly the case with the indexical mode of signification because it prompts us to make connections between a visible sign and what may be invisible or indicative in relation to that sign. Thus, in a non-verbal art form such as dance I suggest that sensitivity to the existential function of indexical signification is very important. I propose, then, that Peircean semiotics is a useful method for teasing out how and why dance is so meaningful. Although I have applied it in this article to two wellknown works in the contemporary dance canon, I claim that its uses for dance extend beyond the familiar and that it can be applied profitably to a wide range of dance genres including productions which incorporate non-dance elements such as written or spoken text and film projections. I consider, however, that Peircean semiotic analysis is particularly helpful in illuminating the evocative imagery of pure dance which clearly and abundantly signifies on several levels. Notes
1. See in particular Zelinger (1979). 2. Both these dances are available on video: Diversion of Angels (Martha Graham Company

1997) and Points in Space (Merce Cunningham Company 1986).

3. For Graham the essence of her work had to spring from the core of human experience. She 4. 5.

6. 7.

told the critic Anna Kisselgoff (1984), I have to have a dramatic line even in the most abstract things Ive done. The references for Peirces work are shown according to the numbering system used in his collected papers 193158. They show year, volume number and the number of the paragraph in which the quotation appears rather than the number of the page. See Eco (1979, 6872) for a more detailed discussion of Peirces notion of semiosis. Semiosis is also similar to Barthes concept of connotation where the sign linguistic, visual or aural enters the wider semantic fields of a societys cultural customs and practices (Barthes 1967, 91; Hawkes 1977, 1334). See for example Eagleton (1983); Esslin (1987); Hawkes (1977); Jakobson (1971, 335). There is an indexical function within language proper in terms of pointers and shifters (this table or that chair, you, me, over there, here, etc.) although, as Peirce was aware, such linguistic expressions are arbitrary or conventionally established and he was tempted to exclude both non-verbal pointers and deictic and anaphoric verbal shifters from this category (Eco 1979, 115). On the other hand, it can be argued that the extralinguistic pointing finger or directional arrow do not correspond to the sign proper because they have more causal or natural connections with their objects. See also Urciuoli (2001, 18990).

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pure index, or to find any sign absolutely devoid of the indexical quality (1932, vol. 2, 172). Note that this is a relatively late idea stemming probably from late nineteenth-century work of those such as Franois Delsarte who introduced various areas of the body as coded means of expression. Ideas as to where the emotional centre of the body is located change according to geographic and historical contexts. This article was originally published in Dance Research Journal 34, no. 1: Summer 2002, 1123. Barthes theory is similar to Umberto Ecos notions explicated in The Open Work (1989, 4) in which he writes: [] every recognition of a work of art is both an interpretation and a performance of it, because in every recognition the work takes on a fresh perspective for itself. Cunninghams composers and designers are given complete independence in freely following their own inspiration. They are in no way expected to illustrate his dances. However, for Points in Space Cunningham suggested that his collaborators should think of the weather (in Macaulay 2007). It was Cunninghams copious output of drawings that formed the material for a collection published in Other Animals (2002) (New York Public Library 2007).

8. Peirce also claims that it would be difficult, if not impossible, to instance an absolutely 9.

10. 11.

12.

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13.

Notes on contributor
Henrietta Bannerman is head of research at London Contemporary Dance School where she tutors and supervises postgraduate and research students who are emerging and experienced professional dancers and choreographers. She is also a freelance lecturer specialising in dance history, aesthetics and critical studies. She has gained an international reputation for her papers on American and British contemporary dance which she has presented at conferences including those held by the Society of Dance History Scholars and the Congress on Dance Research. She has published papers in journals such as British Dance Research and in 2010 has articles appearing in the American Dance Research Journal and a special issue of Forum for Modern Languages.

References
Aston, E., and G. Savona. 1999. Theatre as a sign system. London: Routledge. Bakhtin, M. 2004. Discourse in the novel. In Literary theory: An anthology, ed. J. Rivkin and M. Ryan, 2nd ed., 67485. London: Blackwell. Bannerman, H. 1998. The work of Martha Graham (19351948) with particular reference to an analysis of her movement system: Vocabulary and syntax. Unpublished doctoral thesis, University of Surrey at Roehampton. Barthes, R. 1967. Elements of semiology. Trans. A. Lavers and C. Smith. London: Cape. Barthes, R. 1972. Mythologies. Trans. A. Lavers. London: Cape. Barthes, R. 1977. The death of the author. In Image. Music. Text. Trans. S. Heath, 1429. London: Fontana. Celant, G., ed. 1999. Merce Cunningham. Milan: Charta. Chandler, D. 2007. Semiotics The basics. 2nd ed. London: Routledge. Copeland, R. 2004. Merce Cunningham The modernisation of modern dance. New York: Routledge. Culler, J. 1986. Saussure. London: Fontana. Eagleton, T. 1983. Literary theory An introduction. Oxford: Blackwell. Eco, U. 1979. A theory of semiotics. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Eco, U. 1989. The open work with an introduction by David Robey. Trans. A. Cangoni. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Elam, K. 1980. The semiotics of theatre and drama. London: Methuen. Esslin, M. 1987. The field of drama: How signs of drama create meaning on stage and screen. London: Methuen. Fiske, J. 1990. Introduction to communication studies. 2nd ed. London: Routledge.

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Foster, S. 1986. Reading dancing. Berkeley: University of California Press. Grimal, P. 1991. Dictionary of classical mythology. Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin. Hawkes, T. 1977. Structuralism and semiotics. London: Routledge. Hockett, C.F. 1977. The view from language: Selected essays 19481974. Athens, GA: The University of Georgia Press. Humphrey, D. 1959. The art of making dances. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston. Jakobson, R. 1971. Selected writings. Vol. 2. Word and language. The Hague: Mouton. Jakobson, R. 1990. On language. Ed. L.R. Waugh and M. Monville-Burston. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Jordan, S., and H. Thomas. 1994. Dance and gender: Formalism and semiotics reconsidered. Dance Research 2: 314. Jowitt, D. 1988. Time and the dancing image. Berkeley: University of California Press. Kisselgoff, A. 1984. For Martha Graham, change is still the only constant. New York Times. Available at: http:///www.nytimes.com/library/arts/02198graham.html (accessed 21 March 2004). Macaulay, A. 2007. The Merce Cunningham Dance Companys theatre of marvels. Available at: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/18/arts/18iht-dance.1.6186686.html (accessed 26 Februrary 2010). Martin, J. 1965a. The modern dance. Brooklyn, New York (first published 1933): Dance Horizons. Martin, J. 1965b. Introduction to the dance. Brooklyn, New York (first published 1939): Dance Horizons. Martin, J. 1968. America dancing: The background and personalities of the modern dance. New York: Dance Horizons. New York Public Library. 2007. World premiere of Cunningham solo to be given. Available at: http://nypl.org/press/2007MerceCunningham_exhibit.cfm (accessed 17 January 2009). Parviainen, J. 2009. Bodily knowledge: Epistemological reflections on dance. Available at: http://choreograph.net/articles/bodily-knowledge-epistemological-reflections-on-dance (accessed 26 Februrary 2010). Peirce, C.S. 19311958. Collected papers of Charles Sanders Peirce. Ed. C. Hartshorne and P. Weiss. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Preston-Dunlop, V., ed. 1979. Dancing and dance theory. London: Laban. Reynolds, D. 2007. Rhythmic subjects: Uses of energy in the dances of Mary Wigman, Martha Graham and Merce Cunningham. London: Dance Books. Saussure, F. 1983. Course in general linguistics. Trans. R. Harris. London: Duckworth. Sheets-Johnstone, M. 1999. The primacy of movement. Amsterdam: John Benjamin Publishing. Sturrock, J. 1986. Structuralism. London: Fontana Press. Urciuoli, B. 2001. The indexical structure of invisibility. In Human action signs in cultural context: The visible and the invisible in movement and dance, ed. B. Farnell, 189215. Lanham, MD: The Scarecrow Press. Vaughan, D. 1997. Merce Cunningham: 50 years. Ed. M. Harris. New York: Aperture. Zelinger, J. 1979. Directions for a semiotics of dance. In Dancing and dance theory, ed. V. Preston-Dunlop, 921. London: Laban Centre. Zeman, J. 2009. Peirces theory of signs. Available at: http://web.clas.ufl.edu/users/jzeman/ peirces_theory_of_signs.htm (accessed 26 February 2010).

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Audiovisual recordings
Martha Graham Company. 1997. Diversion of angels; Lamentation; Frontier; Adorations; Medeas dance of vengeance; Appalachian spring. Dance in America. Directed by E. Ardolino and M. Brockway. New York: VHS. Merce Cunningham Dance Company. 1986. Points in space. DVD. Directed by E. Caplan. New York.