Rhythmus als fundamentale soziale Orientierung

Abstract

How do actors co-ordinate their actions in a well-tested stage play? And how does a dance-theatre performance contribute to a better understanding of processes of social coordination? The way participants co-ordinate social interactions is guided by mechanisms that are true for the actors involved in the scene. Viewed as a burning glass, the dance-theatre scene is analysed in a cumulative theoretical process, as actors in this scripted coordination are oriented towards i) implicit rules in social contexts, ii) non-linear system attributes, iii) anticipations of events, iv) mutual monitoring and v) rhythmic gestalts. Rhythmic pattern analysis shows when and with what tempo and intensity participants adapt to each other’s multi-modal impulses, establishing (prelude), narrowing (climax) and dissolving (conclusion) a rhythmic co-construction. Micro-macro links between transitions of rhythmic gestalts (co-regulation) and the speakers’ contributions (individual autonomy) reveal rhythm as a fundamental social orientation.