Dance. From One Side of the Detailed Spectrum to the Other.
Senior year I was in this large piece choreographed by my professor, Mark. It began with about 12–15 of us lying on the floor, on our backs, spread around the stage in no particular arrangement, heads to the audience, each holding a 4–6ft piece of bamboo upright on our stomach. We swayed the bamboo sticks from side to side as Mark danced around us playing music on his 5ft long bamboo flute he had made himself. There was a lot of running and small group things for the next 5 mins that finally ended with me and a couple other dancers standing off to the side pounding bamboo sticks into the stage drumming out the beat. This was classic Mark, or “The Mark Special” as we would call it; 12 million dancers, a solo for himself, lots of running, and some incorporated live music. This is Modern dance. What a trip.
Oh boy do I love to dance. Whether it’s in a class or at a party it has always been one of my favorite activities. As I’ve mentioned before it was the first performing art I started with. As I’ve also mentioned I really enjoy lists so let’s start with a list of the types of dance I’ve done. (I’ve added some links to video examples if you are unfamiliar with that style and want to know more).
Ballet
Tap
Jazz
Hula/Poi
Ballet Folklorico
Prop
Pom
Lyrical
Military
Kick
Modern
Now I hardly remember the first 4 years of dance lessons I took so I won’t get into that too much except to say that studying polynesian dance was a wonderful experience. I would recommend it to anyone who has the opportunity. If you would like to learn more about it you can follow this link!
So let’s fast forward to middle school drill team.
Now I know when some people think of drill team they think of military academies twirling guns. That’s not the kind of drill team I’m talking about. I’m talking about competitive dance, I’m talking Dance Moms, sparkles, false eyelashes, make-up, and trophies. My team was called The Lanier Expressions and we competed with a company called Marching Auxiliaries. I did this every year I was in middle school and was able to count it as a gym credit, which was pretty freakin’ sweet.
This was a world of competition so naturally, as a characteristically type A competitive person, I loved it. Now the Expressions was made up of three teams, 6th graders, which was automatic, Dance Team and the elite Dance Company, both made up of 7th and 8th graders. You had to compete “audition,” for the teams and the best were put into Company, the mediocre put into Team, and the hopeless didn’t make it into either. So you audition to make the team, you audition to become an “officer,” or leader, and then you audition for each individual dance the team takes to competition. I loved this kind of environment. Unfortunately I never lived up to my goal of being an officer but I did make it onto Company every year and I got into every dance we took to competition.
Drill team was a great fit for me not only because of its competitive nature but because of it’s detail oriented mentality. Ever see the Rockettes? It’s that style of dancing, but on a middle school level, because we were obviously not the Rockettes. The point was the choreography was meticulous.
When you place your hands for a kick-line your hands rest on your neighbor’s shoulders, you don’t push down, you keep your thumb in line with your fingers, you don’t lean forward in a kick, you point your toes, you kick toward the middle of your face, and no matter what you do you do not let your heels come off the ground. I remember spending a good portion of class one day working on just our heads for a kick routine. We worked on it so long I still remember it 9 years later. Kick to the left, left, right, right, left swing right, right swing left, then center 8 times while your head goes left, hold, right, hold, left, right, right, left, center. This detail oriented culture of achievement was perfect for me. I was right in my element and it gave me a great sense of accomplishment and pride. If you are interested in learning more about the drill team culture you can check out this blog post!
Modern Dance
Five years later I found myself in college taking dance once again. This was going to be completely different from any style of dance I had ever done. The department at Sweet Briar College is made up almost entirely of modern dance. The two primary professors who run the department are a married couple who have a very strong professional and academic background in modern dance. Mark and Ella are seriously two of my favorite professors. They’re a little coocoo and a little “hippy dippy,” as my mom would say, but genuine, supportive, and full of advice. Now if you’ve never heard of or seen modern dance according to google it is “a free, expressive style of dancing started in the early 20th century as a reaction to classical ballet. In recent years it has included elements not usually associated with dance, such as speech and film.”
So things can get a little crazy or avant garde.
A dance or piece can incorporate elements of lyrical, jazz, improvisation, involve props, speech, and can have a larger story or message or just be a dance. The point is it’s a free form of expression in the sense that you can really do whatever you want and it’s still considered “modern dance.” As you can probably imagine this was a major shock for me.
I’ll never forget my astonishment the day I learned that most modern choreographers don’t use counts to choreograph their pieces. In traditional dance styles you pick your music and then you count out each beat by groups of 8. You then connect a dance move to each count.
This makes creating, recording, teaching, and memorizing easier for all involved. No one really does that in modern dance. One reason being that most of the time the choreographer would rather conceptualize and choreograph their piece first and then find the music that suits their vision. Then you shift the speed of your dance to fit the music. The music is short? Better dance faster. The music is long? Better slow down or pray the choreographer adds more steps. This was the complete opposite of everything I’d ever been taught. It made memorizing dances very difficult for me my first couple of years.
Another thing modern choreographers like to do is improvisation sessions. They may play some music or give you some vague concept and then you just “go.” For someone like me this is the most uncomfortable thing you could ever ask me to do as a performer. You don’t get to think about what you’re going to do or plan it out. You may lose your balance and fall on your face. You may run out of moves and just keep doing the same few things over and over. There is no right or wrong answer and that freedom is almost debilitating for someone like me. It literally took all four years of college, including a choreography class where we did it pretty much every week, for me to stop worrying about it. I still don’t like it but I’ve learned to get over myself and accept that I’m not going to be comfortable but “oh well.” You just have to do it and if you or the choreographer likes something in particular you keep it. Often times this is how dances get made. You make it up until you like it. You can watch a documentary of Pilobolus choreographing their Where The Wild Things Are this way.
I honestly think modern dance is one of the best things for a type A, detail oriented person like me to get into. It doesn’t change who you are and the way you like things to be done but it teaches you to let go, even if it’s just a little bit. It frees you of that black and white, right or wrong mentality for a couple of hours. My professors didn’t care if I got every step correct, they just wanted to see expression. Feel the dance don’t just go through the motions. I think there’s a life lesson somewhere in that.
Interested in getting into dance? It’s never too late. Check out your local dance studios/professional companies to see if they offer adult classes. Your local Parks&Rec may offer some as well.