THE COMMUNICAnON OF SENSATION AND AFFECT AMONGST DANCERS THE COMMUNICATION OF SENSATION AND AFFECT AMONGST DANCERS

Drawing from current anthropological theory of affect, this thesis explores the communication of sensation and affect amongst professional dancers. According to Brian Massumi, affect is about the body's ability to be affected and to affect others. Affecting others opens one to being personally affected and visa versa. Teresa Brennan argues that bodies are porous and receptive to affective non-verbal transmissions. In harmony with these theories, I explore how the communication of affect during dance performance allows both performers and audience to feel communal moments of visceral affectivity. This thesis adds to the ongoing debate in social theory about whether the body is active or passive (one's position in the debate might also presume that active bodies are "better " than passive bodies or visa versa) since my research findings indicate that, amongst my informants, the body is positively perceived as simultaneously active and passive. In other words, the body simultaneously receives and transmits affect while communicating. This highlights the view that the body is porous and not-self containe