Writings

“Dance is the human form forming form.” - Brian Lawson

Two ballet dancers perform on stage, one in a dynamic handstand wearing red tights, the other in a pink tutu gracefully arched backwards with outstretched arms. The background is a simple, neutral stage setting.

We regularly interact with form in dance as choreographers, teachers, and movers. In our conversations, however, it quickly became clear to us that we don’t have a common understanding of what we even mean by “form” in a dance context. Or, rather, it means many different things to different people. We began to suspect that unpacking form might provide a meaningful new side door into talking about dance..

We were inspired by Ben Shahn’s The Shape of Content, in which he writes specifically about form in art, but also about art’s interaction with the university. Each of the essays in this series corresponds to Shahn’s articulations of form as they relate to dance and particularly ballet. 

We began by looking at form as:

  1. The Human Form

  2. Positive Space: Points, Lines and Shapes in Time