Moving, Drawing, Writing:

1
Moving, Drawing, Writing

• Exploring Different Forms of Literacy

2
Verbal Nonverbal Communication

• Verbal communication - involves spoken written
  words
• Nonverbal communication -involves movement,
  gestures, pictures, drawings different types of
  sounds other than language

3
Picture Languages

• Humans have used a number of
• picture languages such as . . .
• Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics
• Aztec glyphs
• Petroglyphs of the Chacoan other ancient
  indigenous people of the Americas

4
Sign Language

• Sign language is another form on nonverbal
  communication. For example . . .
• When a signer positions the hands diagonally with
  the palms facing, touches the finger tips then
  moves both hands diagonally downward, the word
  house is communicated.
• And to communicate shoes, the signer holds both
  hands in fists with the palms facing downward,
  and then moves the fists horizontally towards
  away from each other.

5
The written word movement in terms of . . .

• Phrases
• Phonology
• Morphemes
• Syntactics
• Semantics

6
Connecting Movement Word Phrases . . .

• A dance is made up of many movement phrases just
  as a sentence or paragraph is made up of word
  phrases.
• It is also possible to capture the rhythm of a
  series of phrases in movement by using longer
  movements for phrases that are emphasized and
  shorter movements for less stressed phrases.
• For example in the sentence I had a red hat you
  can stress the phrase a red hat to create a
  movement rhythm consisting of short long
  actions.
• This rhythm could be diagrammed as
• __ _____.

7
Connecting Movement Phonology . . .

• Phonology refers to the small units of sound that
  make up a language such as b, ph or g.
• It is possible to create movements that copy such
  sounds.
• For example - A slow, sustained action copies the
  sound of st while a dabbing action is like the
  g sound.

8
Connecting Movement Morphemes . . .

• Morphemes are the smallest unit of meaning in a
  language.
• A simple word such as dog is a morpheme.
• Single movements or gestures also communicate
  meanings.
• For example - Gestures such as beckoning or
  waving have a meaning.

9
Connecting Movement Syntactics . . .

• Syntactics refers to the rules of grammar.
• One rule in English is proper word order. In
  English we say red hat, but in French chapeau
  rouge is the proper word order.
• Movement order is also important.
• For example - A mime can pretend to open a drawer
  take out an object, followed by removing his
  hand closing the drawer. But if the mime fails
  to remove his hand before closing the drawer, a
  different meaning is communicated.

10
Connecting Movement Semantics . . .

• Semantics refers to shades of meaning conveyed by
  language.
• The words mashing potatoes have a different
  meaning from the words slicing potatoes.
• Similarly, the movements performed in a Romantic
  Ballet send a different message than the
  movements of hip hop dancing.

11
What is movement literacy?

• It is . . .
• Being sensitive to variations in your body or
  kinesthetic feelings when performing different
  movements.
• Understanding that different movements
  communicate different messages.

12
Exploring Movement Literacy

• Perform the following actions as you concentrate
  on the body feelings you experience.
• Pierce the space around your body with one arm.
• Bring both hands next to your shoulders very
  slowly press them away from your body.
• Walk as if you are walking on very sticky mud.
• Walk as if you are surrounded by a dense fog.

13
Following the movement exploration . . .

• Write down as many words as you can think of that
  describe the body feelings you experienced in
  each exploration experience in the previous
  slide.
• Were the words you wrote down different when you
  were describing your body feelings for the
  different exploration experiences?

14
Now lets carry this exercise a bit farther.

• Draw two visual symbols that you think represent
  two of the body feelings you experienced in the
  movement explorations you just completed.
• Examples of two such visual symbols are shown on
  the right.

15
Another way to connect movement drawing . . .

• It also possible to
• draw a diagram
• that represents the
• pathway or floor
• pattern followed by
• two dancers in a
• dance. An example
• is shown at the
• right.

16
Yet another way to connect movement drawing . .
.

• In addition, it is
• possible to draw a
• diagram that
• represents the
• changes in energy
• quality performed
• by one dancer in a
• dance as seen at
• the right.

17
Visual artists visual literacy

• Being sensitive to the use of color, line,
  texture, shapes other components of a visual
  work of art is called visual literacy.
• Students of the visual arts study in order to
  develop their visual literacy just as dancers
  perfect their movement or kinesthetic literacy.

18
More work with movement literacy . . .

• In dance education we use specific words to
  describe our movements.
• These words include the following movement
  components direction, level, size, timing,
  duration, rhythm, quality, shape, pathway
  position.

19
A final exercise in movement literacy . . .

• Perform a simple series of movements such as . .
  .
• Walk over to a chair sit down on it and then
  stand walk away from the chair.
• Then, describe your movement sequence using the
  movement components listed on the previous slide.
  
• For example you may walk in specific directions
  to move towards away from the chair. When you
  sit on the chair stand, you change levels.