Form & Function: the Art of Dance

Photo by Lois Greenfield

One of BodyVox’s greatest talents lies in its ability to appeal to a wide crowd without sacrificing style for accessibility, a quality keenly exemplified in its adult classes, which offer a range from classical ballet to urban jazz and energetic West African dance, making it difficult to find an excuse not to try something. In this author’s own experience as an individual who has never studied dance before, and who did in fact wake up one morning and decide to work for a dance company, this surplus of options can be initially overwhelming, if not downright intimidating to those less aware of the physical arts.

The best prevention method to succumbing from such fear however is to bellow out loudly against the ignominy of potential failure (your decision whether to do so literally), and throw yourself willingly into the way of blisters and bruises, or what we here at BodyVox call learning, a decision that for non-dancers will cause every impulse and nerve ending to scream in protest, resulting in that moment’s hesitation which separates a shaky dance move from polished technique. This is a particularly steep hill to climb for those who spend the majority of their days sitting in office chairs, as their muscles have over time contorted and shifted to accommodate the sedentary lifestyle, and whose impulse to transition into new and strange physical directions will be all the more challenging (as well as necessary) to overcome if they are used to a lack of movement.    

Another factor to consider when approaching dance from a neophyte’s perspective is that it is quite impossible to learn from an analytical viewpoint. When observing, or even participating in a production of Giuseppi Verdi’s  Aida for example, one can be aware that at the time of its composition within 19^th century Italy, the country was undergoing major political reorganizing, and that the collection of Egyptian high priests within the opera was Verdi’s allegory of the Vatican, who at the time controlled several of the state provinces. Taking this focal lens and attempting to apply it when observing a BodyVox production will most certainly render the user comically befuddled at the end of the show rather than enriched by the back story, simply because the same tools cannot be applied to different forms of art.

Dance draws less from historical background than from intrinsic movement, a process which this author has yet to fully understand. It would serve students very little to learn about this field in an academic classroom as opposed to a theatre floor, where they can see and perform the movements themselves. When taking a ballet class as a non-dancer at BodyVox, if you find yourself drifting off into the political revolution behind the grand jeté, particularly while attempting it, the resulting limp walk you will carry around with you for the next week will certainly dissuade further attempts.  The key to success as a non-dancer taking dance classes is then not only the courage to physically push the limits of your bone structure, but also the ability to be open to entirely new perspective when learning technique. The conscious mind plays a surprisingly little role in mastering dance. It is in the unconscious, the instinctual moves which jerk your hand off of a hot stove, or give sports athletes the ability to pull off amazing feats of physical performance, and the desire to master the unconscious which drives at the heart of the dancer.

It would be callous to expect readers, particularly those interested in taking classes at BodyVox, to listen whole heartedly to my advice, as well as my neolithic ponderings on the tools for observing and producing art, if I do not share some of my own adventures in physical experimentation. Next week’s blog post will discuss my enrollment in Capoeira, a Brazilian martial arts form that bears some similarity to break dancing. I have the blisters to prove that it is by no means easy, but I must say, using momentum gained from twisting the body to perform kicking combos is rather satisfying.