Ekaterina Mikhailova-Smolniakova
European University at Saint-Petersburg, Russia
The term “kinemic knowledge” comprises two concepts. The first, “kinesthetic”, means the sensation of movement or strain in muscles and tendons — muscle sense. The second one, “emic”, means knowledge or interpretations existing within a culture and best described by a “native” of the culture. Kinemic knowledge describes traditional types of movements from the point of view which is “native” for studied culture. Within fine arts kinemic knowledge allows one to define correctly what movements were depicted by an artist, i.e. to interpret the meaning of the scene. On the contrary, absence of kinemic knowledge may lead to misunderstanding. Analyzing images of dance, professional and non-professional theatre performances and sport games and competitions and so on, one needs not only to be acquainted with the tradition of representation, but also to have kinemic knowledge of this culture, which is of great importance in this case.
In 14th–15th centuries most of the dance images were more or less symbolic and had additional meanings. Dance was one of the tools to transfer meanings. Studying this type of images a scholar should solve two problems: identify depicted scene as a dance scene and interpret correctly its features and, therefore, its meaning. If the scene was depicted by a representative of the same culture, using kinemic knowledge may help to avoid interpretation inaccuracy or even faults.
As an example of kinemic approach we will examine two etchings attributed to Baccio Baldini in the context of bassedance choreography culture of the 1400–1550s. Kinemic knowledge enables us to state that in both cases the pairs depicted are not “walking” or “standing” (as they are traditionally described) but “dancing”, performing basse dance — the dance type which is associated with European high culture of the Renaissance era. This conclusion allows to specify the meanings of the scene depicted and put one of the etchings in the “Dance macabre” context.