Dance and Poetry?

       Dance and poetry, while both arts, do not seem very similar to everyone, but they overlap in many ways. This is an idea that I discovered just recently by comparing the similar qualities of both mediums. Both dance and poetry as artistic forms can sometimes be difficult to unravel, but it is part of the journey to understanding both.
       I remember seeing a video of modern dance for the first and saying to myself "what did I just see" and "I do not understand it". Naive at the time, I had no idea what the world of modern dance had to offer. Dance not only serves as a way of moving the body, but can also move the emotions and stimulate the brain. It can be difficult to pick apart, but that is what makes the experience so embodying.
       I also remember the first time I read a difficult poem. It was a Haiku. Prior to the Haiku, I had read simple rhyming poems with the rhyme structure a,b,a,b as well as traditional nursery rhymes such as "Humpty Dumpty" and "Hickory Dickory Dock", but the Haiku was different. It seemed too short to understand and I could not figure out for the life of me, what the poem was pertaining to. But just like the art of dance, I have learned that there is more to poetry than just understudying. There is an art to it as well. I have now learned that dance and poetry are intellectual mediums and sometimes the audience does not have to understand, they just have to take it in (and hopefully enjoy it).
 

How do we separate our bodies and minds in dancing?

     Throughout written dance, I find that the mind and body separation are not often seen. The reader of a social dancing text cannot copy a body in motion. The reader only has words or certain notation symbols to create dance. However, dancers watch the movement in the teacher to gain the movement in their bodies. This phenomenon creates a broken history of movement, which is literally “lost in translation.”

            In present day practices, dancers often play and utilize the body-mind connection/disconnection. I often create solos with my brain completely shutdown. I have to allow my body to be the dominate in the solo. In texts, the reader will never be able to fully integrate the movement into the body in the exact intended form. With today’s technology, I hope that every dance maker and choreographer takes full advantage of a video camera, but even video cameras cannot fully realize the genius of movement. The contemporary dancer must hone their skill of witnessing bodies in motion to fully appreciate their body-mind. The dancer is the ultimate witness.

Welcome to WriteDance for Fall 2016!

On our F&M Dance Program blog, we will all post comments, questions, responses, and links related to themes we cover in class.

 On average, 3 full sentences will be minimum for a blog post. You may certainly write more, and post more frequently than the assignment page lists your name.

A blog post should be an original, compelling statement connected to the theme under discussion in class. Refer to classwork or reading we have done, draw on material you locate independently, and/or air thoughts that arise entirely out of your own reflections in relation to the class work. In your blogs, include images, video clips, quotations, and/or links to relevant websites that may be helpful to illustrate or give evidence about your comment or to direct readers to further information.

The assigned blog postings are due by 4:30pm on Wednesday of each week so that we can all read them in advance and refer to them in class on Thursday morning. Students should be prepared to discuss their blog entry in class, and the rest of us in class are expected to have read it before Thursday’s class. Some of us may even post responses to it before our morning class meeting.

ENJOY!