"Staring" And "Beyond Staring"

As we all know, choreography is a dynamic visual art to express the emotions with body. Much new progress ought to be made on choreography in a society that takes image as the major form of cultural transmission. However, due to the deep-rooted influence of traditional visual power, many choreographers nowadays failed to correctly understand the nature of art and body. In an era that consumption was greatly encouraged, negative impacts have infiltrated in all aspects of the society. Consequently, the choreographic body has become a target for people in a consumption-oriented society to pursue their desires. When choreographers have lost themselves in a consumption-oriented society full of commodities and desires, they tend to create dance works catering to the vulgar tastes of the general public based on "market demands". Dance simply becomes a business deal between "sellers" and "buyers", and gradually deviates from the aesthetic nature of art and fails to effectively convey the emotions of human-beings, In the dance sectors in China nowadays, such deviation could be observed in the display of female dancers’body, in which the aesthetic preference of the creators and the receivers of dance works, as well as the human’s consumption desires to the body and the alienation of choreographic body was reflected.It requires effective strategies for body expression to change the alienation of choreographic body and go beyond the "fixedly gazing" of visual power. According to the author, to determine the artistic value of choreography in a modern society, choreographers must take initiative to actively highlight the subjectivity of "individuals" and establish the artistic quality of "dance" during the process of body expression. To highlight the subjectivity of "individuals" means to demonstrate the choreographic body and reveal the value and significance of life through body expression, and highlight the creator’s expression of thoughts and their conveyance of emotions while expressing the choreographic body. To determine the artistic quality of "dance", we must find effective forms to express the choreographic body, achieve the cultural objectives of choreography with ways of expression that are unique to the artistic appreciation of choreography, and thus realize the intrinsic value of arts. In this paper, on the one hand, case studies have been made on the efforts of modern, contemporary choreographers, particularly female choreographers, to resist on the alienation of body under visual power. It aims to reveal the significance of choreographers’subjectivity during the process of their resistance against the alienation of body under visual power. On the other hand, this paper aims to emphasize that choreographers should establish their own "artistic" quality, because choreography is one of the ways to express human emotions. The author particularly focused on the value of visual metaphor on achieving the effectiveness of choreographic expression, and tried to find out effective strategies for choreographic body to resist the alienation of body, In this way, the choreographic body expression would go beyond the choreographic body language in the sense of "fixedly gazing" under the perspective of visual aesthetics. In addition, under the function of visual mechanism, callable, multiple visual structures would be reflected in the expression and description of choreographic body, which enables the receiving subjects to acquire a thoughtful, aesthetic joyfulness.This paper was divided into two volumes, which runs in four chapters: Volume A focused on the "root for the alienation of choreographic body". In Chapter1, an analysis was made on the choreographic forms of the female dancers in ancient China and the Western classic ballet. The author has revealed the drawbacks in modern expressions of choreographic body, and concluded that undeniable traces could be found in history for the alienation of female dancers’ body. According to the author, under the "fixedly gazing" by men’s visual power, the alienation of female dancers’body was deep-rooted in both Chinese and Western history of dancing. In ancient China, female dancers "entertained the audiences" with both artistic and sexual charms. Consequently, women’s choreographic body has become a subject of "desire" under the visual power of men. As for the Western classic ballet, dancers’body also became the subject of "regulation" under the visual power of men. Both choreographic forms have revealed men’s expectations on women’s body under traditional visual power. The sensuality of body was highlighted to satisfy men’s desires to women. The regularity of body was highlighted to satisfy men’s needs for shaping an ideal image of women.In Chapter2, discussions have been made on the cultural roots of the alienation of choreographic body. An analysis was made on the narrations by Chinese and Western traditional cultures on body. The author found out that in both Chinese and Western cultures, the spirituality of body were attributed to male, and the sensuality of body was attributed to female. Consequently, the hegemony of culture was established in which men were "focusing on" women’s body, and women were degraded by the entire patriarchal society due to the sensuality of their body. When considering from a perspective of visual culture, the formation and operation of visual power will all be reflected in a "fixedly gazing" relationship in which men were "looking at" women’s body and women’s body was "being observed" by men in a patriarchal society. As dance becomes one of the forms of "performing art", a feminine sense will easily be developed in dancers’body, which was "being observed" by audiences. In the next chapter, the author would focus on the "strategies to resist the alienation of choreographic body".In Chapter3, the author begins with the female narration in modern dance and contemporary choreography, and has highlighted on female choreographers’ revolution for "going beyond the fixedly gazing" of visual power. They were opposed to the simple display by choreographic body. Instead, they encouraged the "self-expression" of body to highlight the subjectivity of "individuals". Their choreographic practice has laid solid foundation for "going beyond the fixedly gazing" and resisting the alienation of body, and has provided valuable experiences to other choreographers.In Chapter4, the author emphasized that the artistic quality of "dance" must be determined to retrieve the aesthetic beauty of choreographic body. To begin with, the visual metaphor of body movements would be constructed, the potential multiple structures would be made to tell the stories of dance works, and thoughtful, aesthetic results would be achieved via a visual summoning mechanism. Attemptable statements have also been made to demonstrate how the choreographers would express their body with effective strategies. Modern choreographers should make more emphasis on the expression of subjectivity, and during such process of expression, they should explore the artistic values and cultural significance for choreographic body expression,In short, we must realize that a trend of alienation on the physical expression of dancing will exist in our society, which is full of material desires, for a long time. As professional choreographers, although we can’t make changes on the visual power that was evolved by the secular society in the progress of human history, we should still try to construct the right of speech that belongs to the aesthetic aspects of choreography, to embrace the truthfulness, virtue and beauty of art with our own body, and thus explore the truth of life.