Despite the importance of music in almost all dance creation, the world of dance and the world of music are very different. They are different cultures, different economies, often different classes. In my experience, though, the most significant differences are actually the result of differences in perception.

For most of its professionals and for most of its audience, choreography is essentially a visual art, and dancers and choreographers are primarily visual in their perceptions. They react intensely to music, but often as texture more than as composition, the way a fashion designer perceives fabric. Although profoundly inspired by some music, they often perceive it almost as color, but rarely as artistic structure, much the same way that a painter perceives light.

As art forms, dance and music also share a tremendous amount of common ground. Music and dance, like all of the arts, find their fundamental appeal in a special kind of communication. Both involve the communication of concepts that are non-material, in terms that are emotional and even spiritual. In doing so dance, like music, confirms quietly for the individuals enjoying them, the audience, the certainty of their own spiritual reality, and in the best cases, helps to explore and understand that reality.

Both, at their best, are expressions of the spirit, but they are in some ways very different expressions. Dance is perhaps most often the expression of a spirit moving in space, and dance can be successful without music. Music is much more an expression of a spirit moving in time, because it occupies no space, and although it often inspires dance, it rarely requires it. Weaving these two worlds of personal expression into a single, complete creative idea is a remarkable process and a remarkable art. The process, and the art, are both called Choreography.