New Reason Why Dance May Lack Respect

Maybe there is the lingering idea that if you still have energy to dance, you haven’t been working hard enough at more productive things. I can see our pioneer forefathers thinking this!

Great Read!

Apollo’s Angels by Jennifer Homans (trained at NYCB and a former dancer in ABT). Not only a fantastic book on the history of ballet, but a well written book that ties history, art and the dance together. It brings to life the vibrant characters who helped shape the art form. Homans’ descriptions of dance styles and details of great choreographies is amazing! Her writing is clear and impeccable. Not many books excite me so much I want to read everything in the bibiliography! Get it from your library or order online.

Dance as Expression of Frustration

While any physical effort can express (in the sense of eliminating) frustration, there are a few dance styles that are pure expression of this feeling: slam dancing (80s phenomenon which developed into…), moshing, breakdance, hiphop and crumping. I can’t say enough good stuff about this kind of dance. All these styles have the aura of being “bad”. Nice girls don’t crump (why would they?). A mosh pit is scary (to the uninitiated). These dance styles deserve more respect for giving an outlet to guys (and girls but they are primarily male expressions) to let their physical “voices sing”.

Breakdance has led to a fabulous diversity of expressive and refined styles of which hiphop and crumping are just two: tutting, liquid, robot, house, and new blends for dubstep, etc. A mosh pit is obviously more “primitive” than a b-boy routine, which probably relates to the culture behind the dancer, the level of frustration as well as the intent of the music.

Metal music is probably the ultimate expression of pure distress ever devised and yet many adherents are quite well adjusted suburban people. This leads me to think that the music encourages angsty emotions, then cleanses the listener/dancer in a catharsis in which the mosh pit is integral. A more urban street derived form like crumping may be a straight forward expression of a frustrated life that never lets up, hence its more developed and individual style.

Dance Dance Dance

Dance is the least understood of the arts mostly because it is so ephemeral. Unlike a painting, it can’t be studied after the creative work has ceased. Unlike a musical score, it can’t be revived long after it’s creator has passed. Unlike film, it’s true essence can’t be captured. It is an oral, primitive tradition passed from dancer to dancer, born and dying in the moment.

For this reason non-dancers have a difficult time understanding what is happening in a dance performance. They may not see beyond the spectacle of the theatrical presentation or the athletic ability of the performers. Thirty-two well executed fouettes may be an amazing feat, but it does not constitute dance or contribute to the art of dancing.

Another problem a viewer of dance may have is the incomprehension of what is actually happening due to the disconnection from his or her own body. As I said before, dance is primitive and it requires a “letting go” in the viewer.  The phrase “white people can’t dance” isn’t far from the truth in a way. North American culture is very deeply based in body denial, partly due to our religious roots but partly also because it has somehow been made out to be the epitome of all that is foolish and lamely embarrassing.  Historically, our bodies, and by extension any expression through them, has been set very low on our acceptance scale. Ballet is “fruity”, modern dance is “weird”. The only exception to the rule that dance is just pure lameness is the “dancing girl” – the archetype of the free spirited and sexually available young female. SHE is interesting! Nevertheless, the “dancing girl”, while an object of temporary desire, is extremely low on the social scale – a cancan dancer, a chorus girl, a gogo dancer, an exotic dancer, a stripper.

So we have the two extremes – the ‘fruity” ballet and the “sex-ay” dancing girl. And nowhere in there is a place for a guy. Praise be to hiphop that has created a potential for guys to express themselves through dance. But  hiphop dance as yet is not accepted as “artistic’ dance.  It still has a ways to go before it cements its place in the artistic community.

Ready, Set, Go…!

It begins.