Sound as Choreographic Object: A Perceptual Approach to the Integration of Sound in Screendance

This chapter highlights the significance of sound within the field of screendance. It evaluates the perceptual position of sound within audiovisual mechanisms and positions sound’s communicative quality as an essential contribution to sound film and as possessing distinctive possibilities for screendance makers. It also foregrounds sound’s cognitive interplay with the image in creating or dissolving illusions and by extension facilitating or disrupting narrative and temporal continuities. Paying special attention to sound and music in live dance contexts, this chapter maps out some of the challenges for choreographers and composers in screendance, focusing on the opportunities provided by the microphone and audio-editing to enable sound to become an integral choreographic component in dance filmmaking. By presenting the specific qualities that emerge when the audio and visual streams are synchronized, a new temporal granularity is revealed. These thematic streams are presented via a range of works drawn from the history of film, screendance, and music video.