Expanded Perceptions of Architecture

This winter break, I spent eight days in Rome and then eleven days traveling across the Western Mediterranean. (Spain, Portugal, Morocco) During this time I saw great work of architecture, after great work of architecture, after great work of architecture. The architecture in Europe is just purely outstanding. And then when I returned, I noticed, and still am noticing, my perception and appreciation of architecture has shifted dramatically. No longer do I walk past beautiful pieces of architecture, or even just minimally beautiful pieces, I actually see the architecture. Before I would just vaguely acknowledge the buildings, now I can really perceive them, and appreciate them. What is kind of amazing about this is that I do not have any real tangible knowledge of architecture. I could not really tell you the difference between gothic and Renaissance architecture, and even if I did, these concepts would not increase my appreciation at all. This experience of mine supports a cognitivist conception of the arts. The cognitivists believe that art can non-trivially teach us, not in terms of physical, concrete knowledge, but in terms of understanding and ways of perceiving. (see Gordon Graham)

But what interests me the most about this, is what way/ways of perceiving is essential to the appreciation of dance. It seems as if dance has multiple levels and layers of appreciation. Dance can have musical qualities, visual qualities, kinesthetic qualities (physicality), theatrical qualities, poetic qualities, dramatic qualities, emotional qualities, etc. And while it emphasizes, or at least tries to, the kinesthetic qualities, it is hard to extract the kinesthetic from the other layers. (The three main ones are probably musical, visual, and kinesthetic. The other ones seem as if they might be optional or up to the artistic sensibilities of the choreographer.) Kinesthetic is probably the unique thing about dance and is perhaps what dance is most valuable for in terms of new ways of perceiving. But I wonder if it would be a good idea to add in those other qualities to reach a broader audience, or if we would lose some of dance's teaching abilities by adding in those other, non-kinesthetic qualities.