We have been taking a class in the language of dance. We do our thing in a warm studio and I am the only male in the group. Of course, this setup reminds me of being the only guy in a class of 30 in junior high dramatics, the only guy in many classes on being an elementary teacher and the only guy in a class of modern dance that I took in college. Generally, I enjoy the company of women.
The teacher is a retired professor of dance and an officer in an organization that works at standardizing the notation for writing out a dance, much like words can be used to write a story. She is the associate director of the Language of Dance Center USA.
We are in the dance studio for an hour and a half for three days running. The class is being held now because the usual classes are suspended for spring break. The studio is kept very warm and is a large pleasant space.
We have used our bodies for basic movements. Tomorrow, we will continue our beginners' efforts to choreograph short, expressive dances expressing concepts and ideas. This experience seems likely to influence my viewing of dances, something I don't do much of. Our local college department of dance puts on a dance recital each spring so that is one time I do see dancers at work.
Our instructor has emphasized that life is motion, that we make large and small motions all day and that we need to do so to function as animals, as people. Even matter that seems still is actually full of molecular and sub-molecular motion. So, technically, given subatomic motion and human breathing and heartbeats, there is nothing anywhere that is really still.
We learned that there are dance therapists, who, like visual arts therapists, use dance and movement and motion to try to help people. We found that sometimes acting out movements that are reminiscent of sad, frightening or irritating times in life can be cathartic and healing.
Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
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