To my Dancer, Dance Teacher, and Dance Maker Friends,
When I pulled myself out of a fetal position on Wednesday November
9, 2016 to teach a dance class at the college I currently work at, the hardest part was that my work felt
pointless. Why teach dance in a world this divided and violently hateful? I
considered going in and telling all my students to drop their dance major.
“Study something useful.” I would say. But a few breaths later, as I imagined
those words actually coming out of my mouth, I realized that to speak from a
place of fear and disillusionment was to allow myself to be defeated. I know
that I owe my teachers, my students, my peers, my ancestors, and my self much
more than that.
Here is what I said instead:
Do not forget for a moment that the arts have been on the
front lines of the culture wars in this country for generations. When
government swings to the far conservative right, artists are more important
than ever. Artists take conversations about diversity and make them tangible.
They allow us to see a world rich with nuance and color, wherein conflicting
energies are harnessed into vivid content, which through its subjective nature
inspires discourse across all kinds of boundaries.
Art making builds communities and through that, safe spaces
for those who feel marginalized and unheard.
When we study dance specifically we are reminded that change
takes time, and that the path to progress is not a straight line.
When we look
at dance history we see figure after figure, who worked in obscurity for
decades before being recognized as a game changer.
Our culture changes how we inhabit our bodies,
and as a result, we are continuously in need of dance artists who have the
courage to offer new ideas and perspectives.
I encourage you, now more than ever, to take daily technique
classes not because you want to fit yourself into some kind of historic ideal,
but because the practice of dancing, no matter what the technique, is an
opportunity to make yourself stronger, to increase your physical and intellectual range of motion and to enhance your ability to articulate complex ideas with clarity and passion.
As dancers, we fortify our bodies so that they can be
effective vessels for the communication of issues and perspective of our own time.
Technique class isn’t about looking good or getting a job,
it is about learning how to listen to our bodies, communities, and spaces. It
is about learning how to embody and embrace multi-faceted and multi-dimensional
ideas. It is about learning how to get up after you are knocked down, and how
to organize yourself in order to use energy efficiently. It is about practicing
working with others, learning how to communicate effectively, and finding the
courage to be open to desire.
Dance technique class is a forum to investigate how your own
voice and perspective can reach as wide an audience as possible.
It is not an act of selfishness or vanity to dance. If we do
not take care of ourselves we will never have the strength we need, to do the
work that needs to be done in this world.
Throughout human history people have danced together in
solidarity, in protest, and in love. We have danced through war, through
discrimination, through the gutting of the NEA, and through economic
depression. Dance lets us perceive and embody the beauty in effort, the
integrity in tragedy, the power of resistance, and the enduring hope in our
spirits.
Our work matters. Together, let's dance.
