PERCEPTUAL EXPERIENCE: THE PHENOMENOLOGY OF DANCE IN MERLEAU-PONTY

Abstract

The phenomenological approach describes our experiential relationship with the world by suspending all established theories and concepts, and the phenomenological perspective helps dance value perception and its role. Merleau-Ponty’s body phenomenology holds that art is the best way for us to understand perception, and his theory of perceptual structure in philosophycan provide an analytical structure for dance perception. Under the enlightenment of Merleau-Ponty’s theory of perceptual structure, dance movement, temporality and space containthe dialectical relationship between body and world, perception and meaning, and reveal the perceptual essence and structural connotation of dance's temporal structure and spatial structure. Under this influence, the meaning of dance is generated synchronously with the structure of time and space into a meaning that can be captured by perception: Temporal structure is the kinking of meaning between body movement and time context. Spatial structure is the unity of meaning of mutual absorption and transformation of body spatial ability and external environment. The meaning of dance is endowed with perceptual wisdom during the construction of time and space structure.