A study of hand movement and gesture in dance and everyday activities
I met up with my friend Charlie this evening, to film her hands. She is a professional dancer and I want to understand how she creates elegance and gestures with her hands and how you could capture this. Gender is a key issue - men and women’s hands look different, they are different sizes, nail lengths, (women tend to have longer index fingers whereas men tend to have longer ring fingers, something to do with testosterone), they gesticulate and manipulate things differently. My friend Peter who designed the Michaelangelo arm mentioned that it is intended to look androgynous, suitable for men and women. However I’m wondering whether there is value in distinguishing for masculinity and femininity, for example to enhance your identity or affection toward your hand. Holly has mentioned her dislike for her ‘man-hand’ which is bigger and heavier than her normal hand. Perhaps the key to creating femininity is in movement as well as appearance…
