Are We Human Or Are We Dancer?

 

If you don’t know the song by the Killers, here ya go.

So now that we have that out of the way, some of you might be thinking “what do you mean are we human or are we dancer?” Is that even a proper question?

Well as I have been learning over the past few months, there is a school of thought that would tell you that anything is dance. That means you walking to class, waking up, eating a meal, taking a selfie, it could all be dance.

This is what we have come to again and again in dance recently. 

Our dance director has asked, what is dance?

To that my immediate thought is, movement.  But also… what about lack of movement. Yeah… I guess in dances there are sometimes pauses and purposeful times where the dancers are not moving.

Okay, I got it, dance is movement and stillness.

But isn’t that anything…..?

So are we dancing through life….?

As we have gone through the first half of this semester, having pushed myself out of my dance comfort zone and found a new dance comfort zone, I have started to realize that yes, dance is anything and anything.  Dance can be purposeful and not purposeful.  We can be led by momentum, directed by our proximity to others, motivated by our emotions, and provoke thought with stillness.  This happens in life and in dance. 

So for those of you who have somehow made it through this and/or my other blog posts while saying, “I am not a dancer,” well… you’re wrong.

If you are here living and breathing you are a dancer.  You simply need to change your definition of dance. 

So I think the only answer I can logically come to is that, yes we are human and yes we are dancer.

Now, as a dancer this makes me very excited.  And oddly enough I have been noticing it in my everyday life.  I am now that weirdo who is observing the normal, routine movement of people around me and taking note of the cool things I see that would go well in a dance. 

Most notably, this seems to happen a lot when I am nannying.  The inspiration of a two-year-old and their lack of bodily awareness has had a big effect on my dance that focuses on partnering.  I see the way he climbs on me, slides off of me, and runs to me and am immediately inspired to see that in my dancers. 

So if I have accomplished my goal of making you think differently about dance and dancing and what it means to be a dancer, maybe you will join me in noticing the movement of others and seeing it as dance.  Seeing the way that you choose to move around another person or the way someone might fall, and think wow, this is dance.  THIS IS ALL DANCE!!!

Although kind of absurd, and maybe a bit of a stretch for some of you, this is a beautiful way of looking at life. 

As I sit here waiting for my car to get an oil change:

I notice the way the woman across from me fiddles with her purse and think what if there was music here? Would I then see this as part of a dance?

I notice the rhythmic thump of something in the next room.  Repetition… that is an element of dance. 

I notice myself occasionally looking out the window.  If I put this on a stage would I then see it as dance?

Well, it isn’t the stage that makes the dance.  It isn’t the music.  It isn’t the extended arms and pointed toes. It can be anything!

So let me give you a few examples of dances in case you still aren’t quite there.

Pina Bausch, Cafe Müller https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WLazG0bQPI

Miguel Guitierrez, Retrospective Exhibitionist https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhaxOVlhg_E
DV8, The Cost of Living https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIDxSGyO_TQ

And in closing, I will leave you with this quote:

"Kids: they dance before they learn there is anything that isn't music." William Stafford

So go and be a kid again.