Oftentimes the question: “Is dance the right vehicle for this concept?” pops up… (or is that just me?) Ask a dancer what makes dance special to them and you will almost always come up with an answer. Ask the same dancer what makes dance special to society and they may stutter.
For those who have it clearly articulated, I applaud you. It’s not easy to find an answer in this day and age, let alone an answer that can help you on your career path. Dance needs dancers with conviction, and often I’m ashamed to say that I hesitate.
I know, without a doubt that dance is the right vehicle me. It’s the fundamental certainty about this conundrum that I have. That said, I think that’s enough to work with. After all, one of the biggest issues I have with today’s society is our disassociation with our bodies and their movement. Ultimately, dance, which at it’s basis, movement, is the stuff of everyday life. Obvious, but true. Yet even knowing this fact, the amount of people who don’tuse their bodies is phenomenal. People who would rather not walk…not stretch… and then seem surprised when a sudden back pain kicks in – in all likelihood, that back pain (injuries not withstanding) has been created over months of movement abandonment.
Now, if I step this up a notch. Movement is fundamental to everyone. Dance, I believe, is the delineation that takes movement into an art form – gives it the ability to convey meaning. I believe it can be a very effective art form precisely because it contains the fundamental element of human beings – the ability to move. Scientifically, 80% of our communication is non-verbal. Gestures, postures… they are already do imperative to how we see the world, so why not validate dance in the same way – if not more so. Here are people, movement speech-therapist who have worked years to perfect the articulation of this speech.
Dance is moving toward an area only suitable for connoisseurs. There’s a movement of the masses, but I wish that this movement not only held interest to the commercial audience, but the artistic one as well. I observed a performance tonight, Zoi Dlmitriou’s “You May”. It was like looking at a philosophy book. Dancers are intelligent, and we use highly intelligent methods of conveying information that has the ability to skip your head and dive straight for your heart, if not merely your body. The fact that you can respond to dance is one of it’s innate joys.
This rant was as much for my benefit as it was for yours. It’s easy to get caught up in stumbling upon meaning, upon reason. With no solid “job” as it were, it can be difficult to maintain a strong sense of purpose. I don’t need to look very far to find it again.