Cover not available

In:Interacting with Objects: Language, materiality, and social activity
Edited by Maurice Nevile, Pentti Haddington, Trine Heinemann and Mirka Rauniomaa
[Not in series 186] 2014
► pp. 249–268

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload Book PDF
authorization required

Having a ball

Immaterial objects in dance instruction

ORCiD logo with link
Published online: 12 September 2014
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/z.186.11kee
This chapter looks at how immaterial objects are manipulated into being for pedagogical purposes. Dance teachers employ objects to visualise subtle tactile and kinaesthetic experiences. The objects emerge in a situated manner within activity metaphors where alternative bodily activities are juxtaposed with the dance movement, taking for granted that these alternative activities are tacitly known or more basic. The objects have a temporally limited existence within activity metaphors that involve verbal explanations as well as embodied demonstrations of both the dance and the alternative activity. Furthermore, participants are shown to orient differently to mere object-implying gestures as opposed to fully-fledged whole-body enactments. In the latter, objects may be maintained collectively across time.
References (30)
Enfield, N.J. (2009). The anatomy of meaning: Speech, gesture, and composite utterances. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Eriksson, M. (2009). Referring as interaction: On the interplay between linguistic and bodily practices. Journal of Pragmatics, 41(2), 240–262. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Goodwin, C. (1986). Gestures as a resource for the organization of mutual organization. Semiotica, 62(1/2), 29–49. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. (2003). Pointing as situated practice. In S. Kita (Ed.), Pointing: Where language, culture and cognition meet (pp. 217–241). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. (2007). Environmentally coupled gestures. In S. Duncan, J. Cassell, & E. Levy (Eds.), Gesture and the dynamic dimensions of language (pp. 195–212). Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hindmarsh, J., & Heath, C. (2000). Embodied reference: A study of deixis in workplace interaction. Journal of Pragmatics, 32(12), 1855–1878. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. (2003). Transcending the object in embodied interaction. In J. Coupland, & R. Gwyn (Eds.), Discourse, the body and identity (pp. 43– 69). New York: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jefferson, G. (2004). Glossary of transcript symbols with an introduction. In G. Lerner (Ed.), Conversation Analysis: Studies from the first generation (pp. 13–32). Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Johnson, M., & Larson, S. (2003). “Something in the way she moves”: Metaphors of musical motion. Metaphor and Symbol, 18, 63–84. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Keevallik, L. (2010). Bodily quoting in dance correction. Research on Language and Social Interaction, 43(4), 1–26. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. (2013). The interdependence of bodily demonstrations and clausal syntax. Research on Language and Social Interaction, 46(1), 1–22. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Koschmann, T., LeBaron, C., Goodwin, C., & Feltovich, P. (2011). “Can you see the cystic artery yet?”: A simple matter of trust. Journal of Pragmatics, 43(2), 521–541. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kövecses, Z. (2002). Metaphor: A practical introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lakoff, G., & Johnson, M. (1980). Metaphors we live by. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Luff, P., Heath, C., Kuzuoka, H., Yamazaki, K., & Yamashita, J. (2006). Handling documents and discriminating objects in hybrid spaces. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems . Montréal, Québec, Canada, ACM, 561– 570.
Martin, C., & Sahlström, F. (2010). Learning as longitudinal interactional change: From other-repair to self-repair in physiotherapy treatment, Discourse Processes, 47(8), 668–697. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
McNeill, D. (2005). Gesture and thought. Chicago & London: University of Chicago Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mondada, L. (2003). Working with video: How surgeons produce video records of their actions. Visual Studies, 18(1), 58–73. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. (2006). Participants’ online analysis and multimodal practices: projecting the end of the turn and the closing of the sequence. Discourse Studies, 8(1), 117–129. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. (2007). Multimodal resources for turn-taking: Pointing and the emergence of possible next speakers. Discourse Studies, 9(2), 195–226. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Murphy, K. (2005). Collaborative imagining: The interactive use of gestures, talk, and graphic representation in architectural practice. Semiotica, 156(1/4), 113–145.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Nishizaka, A. (2007). Hand touching hand: Referential practice at a Japanese midwife house. Human Studies, 30(3), 199–217. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. (2011). Touch without vision: Referential practice in a non-technological environment. Journal of Pragmatics, 43(2), 504–520. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Norman, D.A. (1988). The psychology of everyday things. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sidnell, J. (2006). Coordinating gesture, talk and gaze in reenactments. Research on Language and Social Interaction, 39(4), 377–409. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sanchez Svensson, M., Luff, P., & Heath, C. (2009). Embedding instruction in practice: Contingency and collaboration during surgical training. Sociology of Health and Illness, 31(6), 889–906. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Streeck, J. (1996). How to do things with things: Objets trouvés and symbolization. Human Studies, 19, 365–384. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. (2009). Gesturecraft: The manu-facture of meaning. Amsterdam/ Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. (2011). The changing meaning of things: Found objects and inscriptions in social interaction. In J. Streeck, C. Goodwin, & C. LeBaron (Eds.), Embodied interaction: Language and body in the material world (pp. 67–78). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Whittock, T. (1992). The role of metaphor in dance. British Journal of Aesthetics, 32, 242–249. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (13)

Cited by 13 other publications

Nishizaka, Aug & Minato Suzuki
2025. Seeing butô Performances: Synesthetic Vision. Human Studies 48:3 ► pp. 625 ff. DOI logo
Chen, Lin
2024. Environmentally coupled depictive gestures in tea ceremony lessons. Gesture 23:1-2 ► pp. 160 ff. DOI logo
Nanbu, Zachary & Tim Greer
2024. Embodied Mapping: Negotiating Epistemic Access during Initial Place Reference. Research on Language and Social Interaction 57:4 ► pp. 345 ff. DOI logo
Öhman, Anna & Eva Klope
2024. How does it feel? An exploration of teaching perceptive sensoriality in hairdressing education. Nordic Journal of Vocational Education and Training 14:2 ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
Löfgren, Agnes
2023. Relocating to Depict: Managing the Interactional Agenda at Opera Rehearsals. Research on Language and Social Interaction 56:3 ► pp. 209 ff. DOI logo
Löfgren, Agnes
2024.  The Interactional Histories of Performance Bodies : From Describing to Depicting Proposed Ideas at Opera Rehearsals . Research on Language and Social Interaction 57:3 ► pp. 301 ff. DOI logo
Ehmer, Oliver & Geert Brône
2021. Instructing embodied knowledge: multimodal approaches to interactive practices for knowledge constitution. Linguistics Vanguard 7:s4 DOI logo
Singh, Ajit
2021. Situating embodied action plans: pre-enacting and planning actions within knowledge communication in sports training. Linguistics Vanguard 7:s4 DOI logo
Douglah, Jessica
2020. “Use the mirror now” – Demonstrating through a mirror in show dance classes. Multimodal Communication 9:2 DOI logo
Mustola, Marleena
2018. Children’s Play and Art Practices with Agentic Objects. In Communities of Practice: Art, Play, and Aesthetics in Early Childhood [Landscapes: the Arts, Aesthetics, and Education, 21], ► pp. 117 ff. DOI logo
Rauniomaa, Mirka, Esko Lehtonen & Heikki Summala
2018. Noticings with instructional implications in post‐licence driver training. International Journal of Applied Linguistics 28:2 ► pp. 326 ff. DOI logo
Råman, Joonas & Pentti Haddington
2018. Demonstrations in Sports Training: Communicating a Technique through Parsing and the Return-Practice in the Budo Class. Multimodal Communication 7:2 DOI logo
v. Wedelstaedt, Ulrich & Ajit Singh
2017. Intercorporeality with imaginary bodies. In Moving bodies in interaction – interacting bodies in motion [Advances in Interaction Studies, 8], ► pp. 323 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 24 november 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue