WP1: My Take on the Importance of Expression through Art
Throughout my childhood, I struggled finding my niche; I could never find a hobby that I could invest myself in. While this doesn’t sound like an issue, it meant I never had an outlet, and I didn’t have anything else outside of school or home. It impacted me more than I realized; I was insecure about my talents, feeling that I wasn’t specialized in anything, and I wasn’t sure of who I was, because I didn’t have anything that I felt defined me. This lasted years, until finally, at the age of twelve, I found my calling: dance. Looking back, this was the milestone that began my growth into who I am now, and as I still pursue that passion today, I find that it is a key part of my identity and how I express myself. For me, this artform brought forth my confidence and individuality, and I know for others, the arts have done the exact same thing by being a vehicle of self expression. Yet in my experience, the arts are often minimalized by society in terms of their value, especially out in the “real world,” causing feelings of invalidation. This needs to be challenged — as seen in my story, and in many others, the arts are essential to preserving and showcasing identity and the inner workings of ourselves, and threats to such should not be tolerated.
Even if art doesn’t seem to have value in the “practical” sense, its ability to bring contentment through self expression makes it just as important, if not more so. The Smithsonian Magazine published a story done by Ross Eveleth looking at the correlation between careers and contentment. In a study done in 49 European countries, individuals were asked about their happiness on a scale of one-to-ten, and then were asked about their career. All forms of artists reported a level of 7.7, while regular careers reported a 7.3, a significant difference (Eveleth). Not only is this because the artists are doing what they love, but it’s because of the benefits that come from the ability to express your inner workings. I’ve found that when I’m dancing regularly, I feel significantly happier and better about myself, which in turn makes me more comfortable in being myself around others. It’s amazing what letting go of the stress of hindering your identity will do for you. Unfortunately, even while we see the benefits of these careers, they’re often discouraged because of their lack of “utility,” which is completely false.
Art is food for the soul; it’s essential to the persona, and it’s utterly invaluable. This is because of the understanding of the benefits that come from expressing oneself through art. The notion of it being only fit for a hobby or for entertainment perpetuates the completely false idea of its lack of importance. As time has gone on, there’s a greater and greater disconnect between humanity and art, but the arts haven’t lost any value at all. Even while the world progresses, I still lose myself every time I’m in the studio and music starts to play. In fact, the world completely disappears as soon as I’m in my own little universe. Dance is a total relief for me in terms of mental health, physical health, and it increases my happiness by tenfold. Anyone who shares the same passion for the arts derives the same benefits as I do, and labeling that as anything other than invaluable is simply wrong. If I could dance every day for the rest of my life, and make enough money doing it, I would drop everything in a second and take that opportunity, but that has never been realistic for me.
Validating the arts as career choices would mitigate the feelings of shame in wanting to pursue them as a career. The emphasis on jobs that have “practical” utility, mixed with the skepticism towards people who want to pursue artistic careers is a recipe for even more feelings of invalidation. If individuals are always being told not to go into an art, there is an implication of minimalized worth for that career. I have always felt I lose respect when I tell a friend or a family member I would like to make a life out of dancing instead of becoming a scientist or a doctor. When I talk to career counselors, I always ask, almost begging them, if there’s any way I could somehow integrate dance into my career. Almost every time, they give me a sad look, shrug their shoulders, and say “You’re allowed to do whatever you want to do, just know that it’s rough trying to make it as a dancer. You’re better off doing something with more job security.” But at what point does “job security” overrule my love for dance, and overrule my happiness from being able to express myself? While a little cheesy, the movie Footloose, directed by Herbert Ross, released in 1984, reflects this power struggle between typical societal expectations and the need for self expression, coincidentally through dance. In the end, the students end up breaking down the rules against dancing, and demonstrate the impact of dancing on their happiness (Ross). Even if this is romantic and dramatized, I think the outcome would be similar if we encouraged arts careers instead of looking down on them — an increase in comfort and happiness within ourselves as more people follow the career they’re passionate about, without feeling of less value.
With this, the subtle discouraging of art-related careers is harmful to expression and identity as a whole. I almost stopped dancing when I came to college; all through my last year of high school there was this constant background noise of negativity and pessimism about whether or not I could “make it” in Los Angeles, and therefore whether dancing was worth my time or money. What makes this worse is the fact that I wasn’t even talking about making it a career at this point — it was only a hobby. Imagine the pushback I received when I told people I wanted to be a dancer — and nothing else. The skepticism I received towards an arts career actually caused me to change my major to biochemistry, a STEM major, instead of pursuing one in dance, which has always been the dream. While I still managed to fit classes at Kaufman into my schedule, that invalidation I felt still took a hit on my self-esteem, and now I feel even worse about ever considering dance as a career. As I reduce the number of hours I spend in my safe space I know as the studio, I feel smaller and smaller, and do not feel the same level of confidence in myself that I used to.
Self-expression is the only means in which the outside world can see and analyze who we truly are, and since any form of art is inherently self-expressive, suffocation of the arts is ultimately the suffocation of an artist’s identity. Songwriters magically translate their own specific feelings and ideas into notes that, somehow, reflect those feelings and bare them for the world to see. A poet pours their soul through the pen they write with and watch it bleed onto the paper where their ideas rest. I myself tell stories and show emotions by morphing them into physical lines and shapes, all while blending it with music and rhythm. Rapsody’s album Eve is a prime example of utilizing art to showcase identity, as every song is a name of a powerful black woman in history and discusses what it means to be black. Each song has its own piece of Rapsody in it. The lack of encouragement of arts careers reduces and therefore hinders artists and their healthy expression of their identity. This is completely unfair to those who feel at home in science or business, because there is no difference in value between these two careers, yet the artist is somehow worse off.
I question the societal expectations that cause this disparity and therefore hinder the self expression of society and individuals. I feel like I deserve just as much respect for wanting to be a dancer as somebody who wants to be a doctor, especially when considering that both take a tremendous amount of work and an equal amount of passion. The disparity in encouragement of pursuit of the arts versus other careers is massive, and very few point out the fact that it’s extremely problematic. No person is allowed to judge what carries more value, because identity is the most important part of our lives and who we are — art expresses and nurtures that. In this case, the least we can do as a society is stop hindering how we all tune in better with ourselves, and instead try to stimulate how we show the world around us our inner workings — by validating the arts and acknowledging their infinite value.
Works Cited
Ross, Herbert, director. Footloose. Paramount Pictures, 1984.
Rapsody. Eve Roc Nation, 2019
Evelth, Ross. Smithsonian Magazine. “Artists Might Not Make Much, but They’re Happier with Their Jobs than You.” Smithsonian.com, Smithsonian Institution, 5 Sept. 2013, www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/artists-might-not-make-much-but-theyre-happier-with-their-jobs-than-you-4065024/.
