Communicating on Ice

Susan Kozel’s “Closer: Performance, Technology, Phenomenology” is a compelling argument in favor of difference, both the visible and invisible. The porous and flexible nature of our “flesh” makes for a system of communication “within one body and between bodies” (1.5). Loosely defined, “flesh” is “my body, is others’ bodies, and is the space between bodies; it comprises things, organic and nonorganic” (Kozel). One’s ability to perceive the similarity and difference between flesh is perhaps what makes performance art so effective. When the intricate network of someone else’s flesh signals an idea to another, our own bodies respond in a unique way. Kozel uses dance as an example of this communicative mode. The undeterminable interaction between that which is dancing and what which is danced resonates even stronger in performances like Ice Skating.

As a former skater, I can attest to the lack of control one experiences while trying to make visible the invisible. To a degree, a skater has control over their body, but while learning new jumps, it is far from determinable. Mentally, a skater is prepared to tell their body to jump at a certain angle, to position their legs correctly until a particular moment in the air and when to release and land in a stable manner. The skater listened to the coach, studied, watched video and practiced off ice. However, in that moment where a jump is attempted for the first time, the mental idea of moving through space does not actualize itself in the physical. In most cases, the skater falls. Then they fall again and again until the palpable flesh of the skater’s body aligns with the skater’s environment. The process is meant to build up muscle memory to increase the likelihood that the space the skater occupies will be controlled, but there will always be elements which do the controlling.

it's a long road from this...

to this...

As a skater progresses to the competition level, they want to move elegantly, to hit all the jumps, maintain speed and appeal to the audience’s emotions through the choreography. However, elements like the type of ice and the way the skater puts the skates on their feet makes for unknowable conditions and contribute to the controlling of the skater. Similar to a dance which goes awry, the body responds to itself and these elements in a way which might “dictate otherwise” (Kozel) than intended. This can be a disaster because sloppy jumps, incomplete movements and choppy skating fail to connect and communicate accurately to the viewer. Sometimes though, the communication between the viewer and skater is articulated perfectly when the invisible connections within the flesh actualize themselves and the viewer, in turn, actualizes the invisible. The process of learning to skate takes place on multiple levels. Communication is necessary between the mind and the body, between the interior body and the exterior, then between the exterior and another viewer. In these moments of learning and alignment, flesh communicates through the ways in which “the seer and the visible reciprocate one another and we no longer know which sees and which is seen” (Merleau-Ponty, 139). It is through this reversibility that art is created and communicated.