I remember sitting at my dinner table trying to explain why I was talking a dance class spring semester while my family laughed at me. Honestly, I was laughing too. I was never graceful, smooth, or anything in the middle. I was just a little goon trying to get through life without tripping over too many things. Despite my family’s laughter and my own reservation, I chose to enroll in dance anyway. I believed what Doris Aman, my carillon instructor, told me about the connection between dance and dyslexia was true; she told me I could overcome the physical effects of dyslexia by working on cross-body control and coordination. If you fast forward five months, it will bring you to today. Today marks the final week I’ll be at UofR before my freshman
…show more content…
Doris had said contemporary has proven to be the most helpful style for carillonneurs. I enjoyed contemporary the most now that I’ve had time to think about it. Contemporary dance made me feel like I had a flow of positive energy coursing through me. Ballet, on the other hand, felt like the complete opposite. The style of ballet felt so rigid and controlled; I was thinking about dancing more than I was dancing. I middle ground between the two would be jazz in my opinion though. There’s a certain level of accuracy and sharpness to the moves without the same excessively sharpened edge. I guess I’m saying contemporary was free, ballet was suffocating, and jazz was very structured. I also experienced the kind of contemporary exhibited by Kate Weare and Company. Personally, I found their style of contemporary to be to emotionless and perfected… there was no flow. The opposite of emotionless was the West African dance workshop I attended. Though I wouldn’t want to practice that style myself, I didn’t experience dancers in my time this semester that looked happier than the individuals in that …show more content…
Before this class I had only seen ballets and broadways. I feel that one of our best class discussions was facilitated by me questioning Kate Weare’s message. The 15 minutes or so we spent as a class discussing our interpretation of the performance proved to be more engaging than some of our physical dancing. I was sweating a lot in class most days though. I’m definitely in better shape than I was coming into class -- just staying moderately active for two or so hours a week really goes a long way. Unfortunately, I did miss some classes which I regret. I had a really difficult semester marked by strep throat that grew to be a sinus infection, the death of a loved one, and my first cold winter away from home. There were times trying to dance through all that felt grueling and other times it felt liberating.
I would say the one common facet between all of the style we practiced was the presence of energy, focus, and emotion. Not a single style is worth watching if the dance doesn’t possess or bring those qualities to the dance. To me, dance technique is something that comes from within a person, manifesting itself in the smallest minutiaes of a person’s movement. I never understood when people would say cliche things like “dance is life” or “the movement speaks,” but I can truly say those phrases mean something to me at this
Doris had said contemporary has proven to be the most helpful style for carillonneurs. I enjoyed contemporary the most now that I’ve had time to think about it. Contemporary dance made me feel like I had a flow of positive energy coursing through me. Ballet, on the other hand, felt like the complete opposite. The style of ballet felt so rigid and controlled; I was thinking about dancing more than I was dancing. I middle ground between the two would be jazz in my opinion though. There’s a certain level of accuracy and sharpness to the moves without the same excessively sharpened edge. I guess I’m saying contemporary was free, ballet was suffocating, and jazz was very structured. I also experienced the kind of contemporary exhibited by Kate Weare and Company. Personally, I found their style of contemporary to be to emotionless and perfected… there was no flow. The opposite of emotionless was the West African dance workshop I attended. Though I wouldn’t want to practice that style myself, I didn’t experience dancers in my time this semester that looked happier than the individuals in that …show more content…
Before this class I had only seen ballets and broadways. I feel that one of our best class discussions was facilitated by me questioning Kate Weare’s message. The 15 minutes or so we spent as a class discussing our interpretation of the performance proved to be more engaging than some of our physical dancing. I was sweating a lot in class most days though. I’m definitely in better shape than I was coming into class -- just staying moderately active for two or so hours a week really goes a long way. Unfortunately, I did miss some classes which I regret. I had a really difficult semester marked by strep throat that grew to be a sinus infection, the death of a loved one, and my first cold winter away from home. There were times trying to dance through all that felt grueling and other times it felt liberating.
I would say the one common facet between all of the style we practiced was the presence of energy, focus, and emotion. Not a single style is worth watching if the dance doesn’t possess or bring those qualities to the dance. To me, dance technique is something that comes from within a person, manifesting itself in the smallest minutiaes of a person’s movement. I never understood when people would say cliche things like “dance is life” or “the movement speaks,” but I can truly say those phrases mean something to me at this