Dance and Resistance: An Embodiment of the Body as a Medium to Fight Violence against Women

Abstract

This paper offers the perspective of dance as a manifestation of body resistance so as to produce a theological and practical basis for voicing and fighting violence against women in Indonesia. The author chooses dance as a resistance medium with a feminist dimension because dance has a relational character that forms a connection to the existence of the body and is open to shape each individual’s experience, including the reality of suffering. Some of the theories that will be used are dance theory from Kimerer L. LaMothe and ritual theory from Roy A. Rappaport. The two perspectives will have a constructive dialog to show dance as an embodiment of defense against violence against women. This paper is divided into several sub-topics. The first is introduction, the second is the research methods, the third is the meaning of resistance, the fourth is the theoretical study of dance as a ritual practice, the fifth is the character of openness and relational dance, the sixth is dance as a feminist ritual medium for resistance, and seventh is the conclusions.

1. Introduction

Violence against women in Indonesia is a form of violence that continues to increase. Based on the 2022 Annual Records of Violence against Women, 338,496 cases of gender-based violence (KBG) against women were collected with details, complaints to Komnas Perempuan 3838 cases, service agencies 7029 cases, a significant 50% increase in KBG against women, namely 338,496 cases in 2021 (from 226,062 cases in 2020) [1]. The increase in the number of violence against women shows that in Indonesia, women lack protection and security space to defend themselves from various forms of violence. If women do not get a safe space, it will open up space for violence.

Violence against women in Indonesia is not only a social or cultural issue, but also a significant theological problem for common life. Serene Jones from the point of view of feminist theology sees that the issue of violence against women is also intertwined with other forms of oppression, such as racism, poverty, exploitation, heterosexism, ageism, and discrimination [2]. Violence against women then becomes a problem of theological research because violence causes oppression as well as restraints on the existence of the human body. The issue of violence against women then raises the question that is there a source of theology that has the resilience to deal with violence? Or how can a theological perspective study be used to respond to violence against women?

This paper offers the perspective of dance as an embodiment of body resistance as a theological and practical basis for voicing and fighting violence against women in Indonesia. Dance as a ritual practice can communicate an inner experience that is expressed through body movements and expressions [3]. LaMothe shows that dance has the power to express human experience not with words, but through movements that signal an experience. The author chooses dance as a resistance medium with a feminist dimension because dance has a relational character that forms an appreciation for the existence of the body; is open to shaping each individual’s experience; has the potential to open a language space that frees women to express themselves and even becomes a medium for self-defense in voicing the reality of suffering.

Some of the theories that will be used are dance theory from Kimerer L. LaMothe and ritual theory from Roy A. Rappaport. The two perspectives will have a constructive dialog to show dance as an embodiment of defense against violence against women. This paper is divided into several sub-topics. The first is introduction, the second is the research methods, the third is the meaning of resistance, the fourth is the theoretical study of dance as a ritual practice, the fifth is the character of openness and relational dance, the sixth is dance as a feminist ritual medium for resistance, and seventh is the conclusions.

2. Research methods

The research method used in this paper is a qualitative method with a feminist approach and literature studies. Qualitative methods investigate, find, and describe in a narrative a meaning that originates from the actions of everyday life [4]. Research with qualitative methods uses human experience or action as a significant research location to produce meaning. Data collection and processing of qualitative data as research methods do not focus on numerical data, but on empirical data that require interpretation of an action, human behavior. The author chooses to use a qualitative method because this approach to human experience is relevant to the feminist approach, which is also used as the focus of the research method in this paper.

The feminist method also uses an approach to human experience, specifically the subject of women as a source of knowledge. Jennie Barnsley quotes Linda Hogan seeing two relations that emerge in the investigation of the feminist method, namely “women experiences of oppression under patriarchy and ‘engaged action for change” [5]. The feminist method originates from the problem of oppression of women’s experiences, which gives rise to an action to transform the meaning of experience. In this paper, a feminist method approach is used to understand violence against women as part of women’s experiences that require theological construction through a cultural dimension, namely dance. Dance can be a medium of transformation to speak out against the reality of violence against women.

3. The meaning of resistance

Violence against women occurs in various forms and social contexts of human life. B. Rudi Harnoko in his article entitled Behind Acts of Violence Against Women agrees that violence does not only include physical damage, but also includes threats, pressure, suppression of the actualization of human’s mental abilities and thinking power [6]. Harnoko showed that violence against the physical body is the same as violence against the individual’s soul, which destroys the individual’s ability to develop. Violence also refers to restraint on the actualization of the human body, which is the right of every individual in reality as a human being. If the existence of the body is not given the opportunity to actualize itself, then violence becomes a space for oppression of the body.

Accordingly, Jones, from a feminist theological perspective, sees violence as a widespread cultural and social practice. Jones saw “violence as systemic and structural, tolerated or accepted as “natural”-part of the human condition” [7]. Violence against women also becomes structured violence because it is supported by the social relations of human life. While, the systemic aspect shows that violence has been formed through the system of power in society. As a result, violence is normalized as part of human life practices.

Based on the context of violence, which is prone to occur in human relations, the author sees the meaning of resistance as a source of theory and practice in dealing with forms of violence. In terminology, Resistance means “a situation in which people or organizations fight against something or refuse to accept or be changed by something” [8]. Resistance describes an individual’s ability to deal with problems, so the meaning of resistance is also closely related to efforts to resist. Next, Catherine Mills analyzes the meaning Resistance from Judith Butler. Mills saw “there is the linguistic vulnerability of the subject, so far as the subject is produced through language and hence is susceptible to its power to injure and wound” [9]. The linguistic dimension with resistance is in a vulnerability relationship. The emphasis on the subject as the agent of social transformation becomes vulnerable to injury when the subject is only formed in the medium of language. The intended language dimension also leads to verbal categories, which allow the production of a word to become uncontrollable, even language allows control over the subject so that the subject becomes helpless. Then Mills quotes Butler, who uses the concept of power from Michel Foucault to emphasize the meaning of Resistance through the subject.

“Power acts on the subject in at least two ways; first, by making the subject possible, as the constitutive conditions of possibility of the subject and, second, as what is ‘taken up and reiterated in the subject’s own’ acting” [10].

Resistance can occur when the subject is placed in a power frame. Power is meant not as a passive subject, but as an active subject. Butler’s perspective in Mills’s writing describes Resistance as being confronted with efforts to bring subjects into action to survive through the power of existence. The subject is given space to perform actions that display the subject’s self-existence. Power can be interpreted positively, namely to restore the rights of each subject to its existence in social relations. Resistance means strength as well as power to defend oneself against the suppression of one’s reality as a subject.

In line with Mills’s writings, Monique Deveaux outlines Foucault’s agonistic concept of power to define resistance to violence. Deveaux sees “an agonistic model of power-the notion that where there is power, there is resistance” [11]. Agonistic power describes the strength of resistance based on the subject’s desire to defend himself, to show strength. Implicitly, Deveaux shows that without power, or the will to survive, it becomes difficult to practice Resistance because Resistance appears in the form of self-defense. The value of Resistance to violence can be understood as a form of the subject’s struggle against oppressive power. Resistance also describes the power of the subject in an effort to defend against other powers.

Basically, Mills and Deveaux’s perspective refers to the meaning of resistance that arises through the recognition of the existence of the subject. Resistance becomes resistance efforts because subjects, more specifically women who are vulnerable to becoming victims of violence, are not given space as subjects who have power over themselves. Women are actually used as objects that do not have the power or strength to act. Then, the meaning of resistance becomes an opportunity to see the ability, strength of women as subjects who are able to maintain their existence without any restraints and oppression. The author then chooses dance as the medium of resistance because the power of dance lies in the body’s freedom to perform an action and has characteristics relational and openness.

4. Dance as a ritual practice

One of the works of art that involves body movement is dance. Dance is categorized as a nonverbal art that involves the reality of human life. Kimerer L. LaMothe in his book Why We Dance? A Philosophy of Bodily Becoming defines dance in three elements, namely “create and become patterns of sensation and response, cultivate a sensory awareness, and align our health and well-being with the challenges of the moment” [12]. LaMothe shows that dance is not just a moving body, but dance is formed in patterns that are identical to self-images. Dance patterns display sensations and body responses that are created based on the wishes of the dancers. Dance represents the dancer’s experience and life. On the other hand, LaMothe shows that dance is formed in an awareness of the senses to participate through body movements and patterns. Dancing means being involved freely, and there is no element of coercion because every dance movement or pattern displays the dancer’s own will. The sensory awareness element of dance also has an influence on the concept of sensation and self-response to human experience with its surroundings. In this case, dance is the awareness of the body’s actions to move in response to efforts to align itself with circumstances. The circumstances or moments that LaMothe refers to also refer to the reality of suffering, pleasure, and the reality of self-experience in the world. Dance is a complex body movement because it implies self-existence with various experiences of human life.

Elsewhere in the book, LaMothe defines dance as a living entity that integrates reason with experience. LaMothe is in line with Gerardus van der Leeuw’s perspective of seeing dance as “represents and brings into being as one—the complex webs of personal and communal experiences, symbolic and social relations that make the moment of performing” [13]. In dancing, individuals are formed in unity both personally and communally, which produce a performance. Basically, dance is an experience that is shown or manifested through symbolic actions, which can be done in groups or individually. The experience embodied in dance also involves the involvement of reason as a process of forming actions, so that dancing becomes a reasoning activity with bodily experience. Then, LaMothe emphasized that the unity of life meant was “dance enacts: bodily life and cultural life” [14]. LaMothe points out that dance is contextual because it consists of the experience of the human body with cultural life that influences dance practice. Bodily life refers to the media or means of dance that shape human life, namely the body. In this case, dance displays the experience of the body, which is the basis of human life. Meanwhile, cultural life leads to social relations and environmental influences that shape individuals in the process of acting. Then, dance becomes an act of performance that unites the experience of the body and the experience of human culture.

If dance is understood as body movements that represent human existence through performances or performances, then dance becomes part of ritual practice. Roy A. Rappaport wrote the ritual as “the performance of more or less invariant sequences of formal acts and utterances not entirely encoded by the performers” [15]. Rappaport sees ritual at the display or performance level as a series of actions that are not only understood by the performers of the ritual, but can also be communicated by others. Ritual itself becomes open to bring up new meanings because meaning is not determined by default by actors. In Rappaport’s understanding, ritual means the arrangement of an action that is formed together to achieve an agreed meaning. Later, Rappaport listed several characteristics of the rituals. First, “encoding by other than performers, formality, invariance, and performance” [16]. Rappaport’s ritual markers show that the actions in the ritual are structured and unchanging. Structured means directed and fixed. In addition, Rappaport describes the characteristics of ritual with performance because performance forms the meaning of a ritual. Without performances or practices, rituals are difficult to identify. The characteristics described by Rappaport are markers of various human activities that can be categorized as ritual practices.

Ritual is not only marked by several characteristic, Rappaport also shows ritual as a special form of communication. Rituals are specific actions [17]. Rappaport emphasized that ritual practices originate from actions, human experiences that are given a special space, meaning that rituals are distinguished from ordinary actions. If the ritual is understood as a special action, then the ritual explicitly also contains a special message or meaning. Then the ritual becomes a communication process marked by two things. “First, there are those in which actions achieve, secondly, there are those in which transmitters achieve effects by informing” [18]. Ritual is understood as communication because of actions to achieve something, actions that influence the formation of messages or meanings. As communication, ritual becomes a medium that transmits messages to recipients, and actions are formed to inform meaning.

Based on the ritual perspective from Rappaport, dance becomes a ritual practice because it contains elements of specific actions. First, dance as a ritual, embodied in the performance of bodily experience, in the sense that its reality is seen through the form of movement. Without the dimension of body embodiment, dance cannot be performed because the basis of the medium used is the human body. Second, dance is formed in an awareness to achieve certain patterns. As a ritual practice, dance involves reasoning awareness in producing movements, and there is a meaning or purpose that is achieved through dance. Furthermore, quoting from Judith Lynne Hanna’s thoughts, dance as a ritual is “transformative performance” and “manifestation of many systems of belief” [19]. Hanna describes dance as a ritual practice that can transform both cultural processes and human experience. Dance does not mean standing body movements without a belief system, but dance rituals include the embodiment of a belief formed by humans. In this case, dance can be categorized as a ritual practice because it consists of a series of specific actions through body movements. Actions formed through a belief system to generate meaning.

5. Character openness and relational of dance

Talking about dance, one of the fundamental dimensions in dance is the experience of the body. As a nonverbal art, the body becomes the main focus in dance rituals to communicate messages or meanings. Kristin Kissel in her thesis entitled Dancing Theology – A Construction of a Pneumatology of The Body describes that the human body intertwined with various aspects of life, be it material, reasoning, beliefs, characteristics that allow for an action [20]. Kissell describes the body comprehensively because it is formed based on the units of human life. Through the body, humans can feel, know, and reason every reality of life. The body not only acts, but is also connected with reason so that the body becomes the medium for the unity of reason and action. Without a body, humans cannot channel reason with their actions.

Kissell’s argument against the body implicitly shows that the body connects all tissues of human life. If the body is the main source in dancing, then dancing means that it is relational because it does not separate human existence, namely reason and action. Then dance can be understood to be relational in character because the body is formed in response to acting and reasoning, and the dimensions of the body relate to the complexity of human life. Kissell departs from the theology of pneumatology to elaborate on the relational aspects of the body.

“Dance as an art medium and example of body, soul relationality can provide a new structure and a new way of imagining theology and a pneumatology of the body; for in dance and the choreographic process, there is no separation between body and soul, body and Spirit because all are part of the dancing whole” [21].

Kissel seeks to bridge the distortions of the body and the soul in the world of Christian theology. For Kissell, the body is not only made up of physical matter. However, the reality of the body is integrated with the soul or spirit, which allows humans to connect with the Divine. Kissell’s perspective supports the meaning of dance as a relational body involvement. Dance appears through the soul, the spirit that unites in the body. Dance is used as a theological medium because the meaning of the body is actively involved in unity with the soul. Through Kissell’s thought, the relational nature of dance also shows an interdependent unity. A dancing body means showing a soul that is also dancing, so that dance becomes a medium for feminist rituals that shape the meaning of the body in relationality. A relationship that is established between oneself is also a relationship with God through the spirit, soul in the body.

Furthermore, from the perspective of feminist theology, Lisa Isherwood and Elizabeth Stuart use the body as a theological medium. “The body in its entirety is the site of experience” [22]. Isherwood and Stuart raise aspects of human experience as essential in interpreting the body. This is also done as an effort to equalize the primacy of reason or ratio. The body is the source and site for the formation of human experience, which means that the body moves in an inclusive manner. Inclusiveness leads to acceptance of the reality of diverse human experiences. Then, the body cannot be excluded only by rational use, but experience also becomes a major part of the body. If the body is the source of experience, then dance also means the arising of open experience. “The body is far more expansive and inclusive” [23]. The body includes reason with experience, but it is also broader because through the body, every reality of life is thoroughly processed.

Based on Isherwood and Stuart’s argument, the body, which is the source of dance movement, can be understood as a site of openness for each individual. Dance displays the reality of the experience of the human body with various dynamics of meaning to be displayed. Dance is not limited to the verbal medium, but through dance, the body moves openly to be involved in movement patterns. Dance is a medium of resistance that displays human experience in openness with self-reality as well as experiences with the world around us. In addition, dance can be a medium of resistance for people who experience violence because the experience of injury, suffering can be expressed or communicated through the openness of body movements.

The meaning of the openness of dance is in line with the universal values of dance. LaMothe uses Gerard Van der Leeuw’s perspective to see the correlation between the body and dance. LaMothe wrote “dance is the most universal of the arts because doing it requires nothing other than one’s own body” [24]. In LaMothe’s perspective, dance starts from the main source, namely the body. As the main source, dance does not use a medium or means outside the body, but through the body itself, each individual can start the dance. Then, dance is understood to be both open and universal because the body belongs to every individual, an essential possession in human life. Furthermore, the meaning of dance forms the meaning of the body in the space of equality because each individual can display his body’s experience to communicate a meaning.

In more depth, LaMothe emphasized “every human being is a body moving, its movement is its life” [24]. The body as a universal medium for dance forms movement. LaMothe points out that the correlation between the body and dance is also present in the experience of movement. A moving body, a dancing body signifies human life. The correlation that is manifested through movement then produces dance not only in the meaning to be conveyed, but mainly in the body in self-existence with the reality of experience. If the meaning of the body being a source of life, dance can also be interpreted as a source of openness to life experiences. An experience that is open to everyone and everyone can participate together. Then, the open and relational nature of dance as a ritual practice shows that dance is a source or medium of feminist resistance that displays bodily actions in an effort to defend oneself against various forms of violence against the body.

6. Dance as a feminist ritual medium for resistance

Dance is an experience of the body as well as a medium for feminist rituals that can shape efforts to resist violence against the body. As a ritual practice, dance implies an act devoted to the meaning of life. Specific actions refer to any movements, rhythms, or floor patterns that are displayed through the body, actions taken to show an unusual action so that movements, rhythms or floor patterns that are displayed through the body, actions taken to show an unusual action so that the dance becomes more meaningful. Aside from being a ritual medium that is nonverbal, dance is also a medium of communication that connects individuals to other individuals. Judith Lynne Hanna wrote three characteristics of dance as a form of communication.

“Dance has grammar (a set of rules specifying the manner in which movement can be meaningfully combined), semantics (the meaning of movements), and vocabulary (steps and movement phrases which may comprise realistic or abstract symbols)” [19].

Individuals can use dance as a medium to convey meaning or a message. The grammar of dance includes actions and body language that are formed regularly based on the will of the dancer. Dance also has a semantic character because everybody movement has its own meaning. On the other hand, the character of dance as a medium of communication also implies vocabulary through the symbols displayed in movement. Hanna’s perspective shows that the dimension of dance has relevant properties to become a tool in achieving something. In addition, Hanna described that the dimensions of the human body in dance are a central source of communication in conveying meaning.

From a feminist ritual standpoint, dance can be a medium of resistance that empowers and celebrates the lives of every individual. Feminist rituals display “use symbols and stories, images and words, gestures and dances, along with a variety of art forms, which emerge from women’s experiences” [25]. Dance is a medium for feminist rituals that show the experience of the body as an aspect of women’s experience, the movement of the body in unity with the soul.

Furthermore, the relational and open dimension of dance also forms bodily experiences that originate from women’s experiences, namely the movement of body beauty as well as self-creativity. Feminism places the experience of women in respecting the experience of the body as a source of life. Feminist rituals through dance have the capacity to fight for equality, goodness for life together because the dimension of bodily experience takes precedence in practice.

Dance as a feminist ritual medium has a value of Resistance because each individual or community can maintain their own existence through movement, bodily actions in making sense of life. In addition, dance also has a feminist character, which is relational and open. Relational refers to the bond that unites the body and soul, connecting the reality of individual experience with the reality of the world around it, and more specifically dancing can connect the individual’s relationship with God. Through dance, the body is no longer depicted as separate from the soul, but rather the body is connected, entwined with the soul as a resource for theology. Implicitly, the relational character of dance lies in the unity of the body, which expresses the soul, reason, and human action. The relational nature of the body also shows the body’s openness to the expression of feelings with the mind in response to an experience. In dancing, the body is not limited only by the mind, but the dimension of feelings, human emotions are also manifested openly. In this case, the meaning of Resistance through dance becomes positive because it unites all aspects of human life in relation and openness. Dance involves human experience, including efforts to display self-defense power through movement and patterns of beauty of the body.

7. Conclusions

Dance as a ritual medium shows the practice of body experience, which is relational and open. In dancing, everyone can be open to express their body experiences. The body is no longer just a practice of thought but also a practice of action that connects humans with the reality of life experience. Reality also leads to the experience of oneself, with others, and also with God. Then, the feminist nature of dance becomes an effort to resist women’s violence. Resistance is not an attempt to commit violence, but an effort to self-defense that respects, protects, and fights for self-existence through body movements in dance.