Page 89 - AC-2-2

Arts & Communication 75 years of Macedonian ballet (1949 – 2024)

The purpose of this study is to determine the value I follow several examples, including reading theater, and
4
categories that are a priority in a certain period and are Reading Dance(ing), which does underline the actuality
5-7
promoted as strategic dominants in the ballet production of these theoretical theses analyzing performance.
of Macedonia. A review of the production of the past In the introductory text of the book, Dancing Texts,
decades holds a very special meaning, not only because of Intertextuality and Interpretation, the author offers a very
this article’s analysis but even more as an attempt to record interesting remark about the use of the term reading in the
the tendencies of Macedonian culture and society. The context of the dance. “Talk of ‘reading’ dances have been
concrete analysis is not a rigid chronological ordering, that become fashionable in recent years, as a term to describe
is, it is not monitoring the syntagmatic level; rather, it is an the process of ‘making sense’ of a dance that we once simply
analysis of paradigms of the national dance scene. Such a called ‘interpretation’”. Interpretation or reading will,
6(p xiii)
process will consider general national determinations and of course, be adjusted to the material to be explored. If I
specificities, not only as compared to European frames but fall into the cliché of applying the skill of reading taken
also from the angle of their indigeneity and uniqueness, from linguistics, the task will be unsuccessful. In this case,
followed by the question of the dynamic relations of the reading involves modeling an authentic technique initiated
theater, in this case ballet, with society. Richard Schechner by key elements that need to be determined in advance:
has analyzed the interactive relationship between the Text (what is text, what is its capacity and what kind of
theater and society, and this is a good starting point. signs are used?) and code (what code should be used?).
2
However, the dilemma set out in this article is as follows: is Author Popopa Blanariu writes about “body as a ‘text’”,
8
the ballet as the “ultimate esthetics of the dance”, given its Zdravkova Djeparoska interprets or reads the body as a
2
tightness and hermeticity, capable of reflecting conditions sign. Different from this, Foster reads the choreography
9
imprinted by society? Even more, the ballet, with its fixed and the plays. The texts can refer to different compositions
5
corpus of classical ballet productions, should provide a of signs; in this study, this will be the repertoire. The
basis for presenting a certain national discourse, which text in this study cannot be interpreted as a precisely
in itself questions its transculturalism. Simon Shepherd subordinate system of signs, which implies a linear
notes, “Thus by way of summary, the bodywork done by model of deciphering, that is, “reading.” Analogously,
theater consists of the construction of a particular sort of the application of conventional techniques of reading is
body which inevitably promotes a particular scheme or contraindicated by the specific research discourse. The
value.” Hence, even in codified ballet production (with a text in this case is a layer, a fluxus, a universe, a “plurality
3
unified form of interpretation, fixation of the dance text, of its weave of signifiers”. It is necessary to interpret it
10
and defined norms of performance), the interaction of as a complex entity composed of a multitude of particles.
ballet performances with the socio-cultural context always Umberto eco gives a very lucid remark in his paper The
exists and differs.
Role of the Reader: Explorations in the Semiotics of Texts;
1.1. Researching discourse(s) he is aware of the possibility of different readings of the
text, which is conditioned by many factors, but also of the
A search for the decoding, the unlocking key, research frames it sets and which are fixed. “You cannot use the text
formula, or starting position may be banal, but in this as you want, but only as the text wants you to use it. An
case very useful. Initially, the idea of fixing the theoretical open text, however ‘open’ it be, cannot afford whatever
research corpus is related to one of the core terms of dance interpretation.” 11(p.9) In this case, the intention is to penetrate
art—choreography. The word “choreography” literally into the depth structures of the textual composition, which
means “dance notation,” from the Greek words χορεία has a large number of historical, esthetic, normative layers
(circular dance, chorea) and γραφή (writing). Today’s range and, without damaging the construction, they should be
of meaning of the term is usually associated with certain removed. For Louis Hjelmslev, the text is a manifestation
fixed dance performances (e.g., choreography of ballet of the resulting system, which substance has to analyze
Coppelia) or an artistic opus (choreography of Petipa), but through the form, context, etc. The sign in that system
of interest for this analysis is the retention of the initial, becomes a part of the process and it is raised to a paradigm
literal meaning. Dancing notation, that is, choreography, level. The thesis of French theatrologist Anne Ubersfled
implies a process of writing, inscribing, describing, and likewise goes in this same direction, the “reading” of
fixing contents and meanings. Writing, on the other hand, paradigms and a release of linguistic norms. “Reading
suggests the need for “reading”. Thus, in this dichotomy, the theatre,” she has determined two spheres (groups of
this relation of writing and reading will be one of the main signs)—a sphere of the written and a sphere of scene texts
provocations in the analysis. In contemporary literature, that are interacting and interfering. The attention in this
2 I use the title of Emilija Djipunova book. 33 analysis will be explicitly and exclusively oriented toward

Volume 2 Issue 2 (2024) 2 doi: 10.36922/ac.2730