THE PLACE OF SEMIOTICS IN CONTEMPORARY NIGERIAN DANCE: A STUDY OF NNAMDI AZKIWE UNIVERSITY THEATRE’S “HARVEST OF GOOD WILL” AND JIGAWA STATE’S “FARMERS’ DANCE”.

THE PLACE OF SEMIOTICS IN CONTEMPORARY NIGERIAN DANCE: A STUDY OF NNAMDI AZKIWE UNIVERSITY THEATRE’S “HARVEST OF GOOD WILL” AND JIGAWA STATE’S “FARMERS’ DANCE”.

ABSTRACT

Contemporary Nigerian dances are as diversified as the culture from which they emerge. This project is an exploration of the use of semiotics in contemporary Nigerian dance. Contemporary Nigerian dance is deeply rooted in the semiology of images because it is not merely an agglutination of symbols, but symbols contained in the language content of any given society. The place of semiotics in this instance dance, becomes an expression of linguistic pattern of a choreographed contemporary Nigerian dance. Semiotics interpretation is a concept that would help in the understanding of meaning-making inherent in activity. Semiotics involves the interpretation of signs, a study of how meaning is derived from both simple and complex knowledge of images, sounds, words gestures and objects. “The place of semiotics in contemporary Nigerian Dance” is thus, aimed at educating choreographers and dance scholars on how semiotics can aid the understanding of a dance through the appropriate channel of interpretation. It is a conscious call to the realization of the role of semiotics in understanding life, where culture codes form a basis of communication. This project has been able to establish an understanding of the way semiotics operates as an interpretive connecting rod between thought, ideas and impressions.