* Professor Melanie George * Dance and Society * April 4, 2011 *
Dance Manifesto: Kaia Range
I. Preamble
I am a dancer. Not the type that has been taking dance classes since she was three, but the kid who’s been dancing in her living room since she can remember, has taken a few classes here and there, and takes every opportunity to dance some more. I just haven’t had much formal instruction. I’ve taken a class or two of ballet, tap, and hip-hop; have been in a ballet, participated in community dance circles at festivals in Japan, and in ceili dance demonstrations; I love salsa, merengue, ceili dancing, and contra dancing; I know the basics in most ballroom dances, and am in the process of learning bachata.
Dance for me has been a meaning of expression, a way to enjoy life, connect with others (my community), learn culture (especially in other countries like Japan, Chile, and India) and it is how I met my boyfriend of almost two years. I used to dance with my brother during the family dance class we attended with my parents, and enjoyed many evenings dancing with my grandfather before he passed away. Simply put, I love to dance and it means a lot to me. It is my form of exercise, stress relief, and fun. That said, I want others to be able to gain as much as I have from dance. With this in mind, let the following be known about dance:
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Dance: A Common Language for Everyone
II. Anyone can do it...
Anyone can dance. Can you breath? Can you walk or wiggle? Are you alive? If “yes” is the answer for any one of these questions, then you can dance. Dance is just motion and by being alive we are inevitably moving.
It’s about YOU...
The most important part of dance is that you make a connection with yourself, with your body. Through dance you realize how your body works, how it moves, it’s potential, and it’s limitations. Not every dance move or position is easy to achieve in one go. It takes practice, working with yourself to understand how much farther you need to stretch, where to shift your weight to be able to balance or even how to put into motion the vision that you see in your head. All this requires a knowledge about yourself, about what your body can do and how to utilize it’s many abilities. Through this learning process you gain confidence in yourself and your abilities.
It’s an outlet...
Dance is yet another way for us to express ourselves. We communicate through movement on a daily basis. Our physical expressions and movements add deeper understanding to our words. So dancing is just an extension of our natural tendencies to express ourselves physically. This physical activity relieves emotions that can’t be expressed other ways. The best dances are done by people who put all of their energy, their emotion, into the dance to express themselves.
It can happen anywhere...
There is no elaborate preparation process for dancing. No instruments are required, special clothes aren’t needed –dance is all about the movements of your body. You can dance in any setting: in the street, in your room, in the hallway, on stage... it is all up to you.
Dance is a language...
Dance is transcontinental, trans-cultural, and trans-lingual. If you know how to move in one country, you can move with other people in another country regardless of language, race, origin or any other boundary that usually prevents connections. By moving together we can learn from each other. If dance is the language, then dance steps and costumes are the words and ideas that show the traditions, culture, and beliefs of a different people, and which facilitate teaching verbal language.
Dance unites us all...
Dance is a means of communication and a reason for communication. Dance unites us all and brings people together to do just that –dance. Dance can be a great catalyst for learning and unifying our communities on a global scale. Dance can help us see the similarities and commonalities that exist between us while celebrating the differences—the different styles of dance.
If people can dance together, people should be able to work together and do business, politics, art, and work together. So everyone, go out and dance!
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Project AU Dance
III. Flash mobs
Goal: To promote dancing in general but specifically to promote AU dance clubs/performances
When: As many times as it can be organized
Where: Open, public spaces on AU campus (i.e. SIS lobby, MGC, the Quad, Anderson Quad, etc).
Who: 5 to 15 (or as many as possible) seemingly normal, unconnected people who would break out into dance suddenly for 5 minutes and then stop just as suddenly as if nothing had happened. One person would be in charge of a boom box which would play music for the duration of the dance time. Each flash mob could have a different kind of music (Latin, Waltz, Indian, etc) which might correspond with the people recruited to participate. Recruits could include dance club members (AU salsa, AU Bhangra club, AU in Motion, Dance in Society class members, etc), or simply dance fans. Another idea is to get professional dancers or an adult dance club from the area to participate and do their own special number as a flash dance performance.
Details: The flash dance could coincide with tabling done in the area to promote dance in general (explaining the positive benefits: physical and mental, stress relief), or to promote a specific club or one of their dance performances. Regardless of the table, a sign would be put up in the area ahead of time, before the flash dance, to promote whatever group the flash dance was to advertise and also provide an explanation for the flash dance. Example: “Come learn to salsa with the AU salsa club!....”
Outcome: Hopefully, after witnessing the impressive, fun, exciting flash dance on campus, more people would want to join the dance groups and attend dance concerts. The success of these flash dances could be measured by clubs who would notice the increased attendance in weekly sessions and performances. And also by the tablers who could count how many people stopped by the table. It might also be interesting to create an experiment: During the dance flash one person could walk by and put a sign in the middle of the flash dancers saying “Please join in.” An observer could keep track of how many bystanders join the flash dances over time to look for correlation and a possible increase in willingness to participate.
Regardless of if anyone physically indicates a change in opinion or willingness to dance, the more people are exposed to dance the more comfortable they will feel and the more likely they will be to join.
Documentation:
Today, April 4th at 1 pm will be the first AU Salsa flash dance. Hopefully the 11 people who RSVP’d on facebook will attend. I will play the music and take pictures of the dancers and how people around them react. If my attendees are willing we might do another flash mob in a week or two. Making reservations and such for tables, etc, was too complicated and frustrating so I will just be looking at how people respond and how willing they are to do another one. So far I think my goal of getting more people to dance is working as one person has already told me that they want to participate even though they have never done a flash mob.
Thursday, April 7th, I may have another dance flash mob with the members of AU in Motion. Rosa, the president of AU in Motion has already invited her club members. We’ll see if people can make it Thursday and if not I’ll see if another week would work better for them.
I will submit copies of the pictures or the video I take from the flash mobs, but in the meantime, attached you will find the facebook event for today’s flashmob, my email correspondence with Rosa regarding Thursday’s potential flash mob, and my correspondence with Kerry who seems to be hosting a flash mob, too, that I might attend to take pictures and see people’s reactions.
