The Choruses of Sophokles’ Antigone and Philoktetes: Dance of Words

Dance of Words argues for a fundamental difference in the modes of expression of actor and chorus. The chorus views the action from the perspective of dancers and singers, while the actors’ understanding is shaped by the responsibility they have to make things happen. While this responsibility fashions the actors’ considerations of cause and effect, linear movement through time and space, and a sense of history, the chorus’ sensibilities arise out of the rhythms of its song and movements. Its mode of expression is a particular way of communicating and elaborating on man’s place in the larger order, and its view of the action is bounded by the way that song and dance mirror that order.