dance rant
So, here’s the thing. I have 20 minutes left in my shift, and 20 minutes left of what is my last mandatory thing on campus before finals week, before I am graduating.
And here’s what I am mad about in my education here at my university.
I am a dance major. Awesome. Whoop-de-doo I followed my dreams and did the major I want. Is that good? Probably, maybe I don’t know, because honestly this major was not what I wanted. Not to say dance wasn’t that, but the teachings weren’t great. Not that my professors weren’t! No, they were bomb. It was just...different. In a sort of bad way I guess.
I came in hearing great things from the professors about how the program was tailored to fit a dancer at any point of their career, whether it be they were just starting out or at the end of the prime. They were open-minded to styles of dances, genres and whatnot.
I attended my first class and that was challenged. We learned all about the makings of modern dance as it is today, Graham, Dunham etc. and on and on. I assumed that this class was focused on modern. IN practical classes, the teachers always viewed dance critically, and would ask us to deconstruct traditional moves and lifts and ask how could we frame it in a new way. That was fine...for a while.
Soon lectures moved on to spotting the
obscene
heternormative narrative that many stage dances took on, how it was
wrong
of a gay dancer to play the part of a straight person for the sake of dance. The apparent gender roles that female and male dancers take on, and why couldn’t there be more gender neutral dances. It was definitely eye-opening and I liked learning and dissecting things like this in the beginning....But it began to take away my love for dance. I couldn’t watch SYTYCD videos anymore without wincing at the hella apparent
WRONGS
they had now. My mind screamed at me everytime I went to a non-Avant gardeish dance performance how it was wrong, wrong, wrong.
‘Crticial thinking’ took away so much pleasure I had in dancing. I once brought it up with a professor, and they waved away my concerns by saying I was just getting used to critically thinking about dance, and it wasn’t the program’s fault.
“When have we ever said it was wrong?”
And it was true, they never said it was wrong but it wasn’t accepted either.
A student 2 years under me was a very run-of-the-mill, straight out of high school dance team, captain of cheer and dance team girl. She struggled hardcore. The teachers often told her to tone down on the 'gestures' that it was too 'extra', and one professor even told her she was too 'feminine'. That her reliance on femininity would prevent her from blossoming into a better dancer.
And, you know I’ve been saying all these negative things about the program, and it’s not bad! This program here is really good, if you want to dance modern dance in the avant garde type of way, not SYTYCD type of way. They claim to be open minded to all types of dance, but the way they question and the way the courses are styled, it’s all pointed towards one direction. It also doesn’t help that all the staff and faculty are basically from one discipline of modern dance, and the two professors that aren’t solely that discipline of modern aren’t full time/professors who have a say in the program. So the whole program is tailored around one type of dance.
They really are supportive of those coming from other types, but say that I chose to make a dance that was completely my original style of dance, it would garner a failing grade, or it would be heavily disapproved of by the staff and faculty.
I just wished I got to learn more of technique and performance here at this school. That there were more opportunities for me to learn more about managing a performance, what goes into making a performance, what movements of my body can better my performance.
I mean, this desire probably means I should’ve gone an auditioned for a school, but I can acknowledge that before attending college I would’ve not made any audition into a dance arts program at a school. We have technique classes here at school, but it’s not considered the main point of the dance program. It’s mainly to keep our bodies in working order for the more avant garde classes. I didn’t know any ballet before college so yeah. Most likely wouldn’t have gotten in.
I don’t regret it, but I wished I gotten so much more from this program sometimes.
Critical dance thinking is nice an all, but what’s wrong with choreographing a dance that appeals to audience’s easily instead of having to write a description of what it’s supposedto be. The staff and faculty absolutely loved a piece that honestly me, and many of my other peers had no the fuck idea why it was in the perfromance, and most of my friends who came to watch our performance fell asleep in this dance. It lasted 15 minutes and the first 5 consisted of near stillness. It was meant to communicate a specific idea, and it was poignant and thoughtful, but everyone I asked thought it was either about body trafficking or porn, and that was completely off track. Anyway....my view is...art shouldn’t need to be explained. If art has to be explained, the creator didn’t do a very good job of expressing that thought. If it was supposed to be a vaguely poignant thing to the audience, that’s even harder, for them to realize that unanimously. Art doesn’t need an explanation.
It should be perfectly clear on what a creator means to demonstrate. .....It might be wrong and the 2 years of crtical dance studies may have been wasted on me, but i think my point is summarized easily in the recent article that in a modern art museum, some prankster decided to place their glasses on the floor and it garnered the attention of many of the museum goers as modern art. ...yeah. that’sall.