According to the dictionary definition, the term “community” refers to a group of people living in the same place or having a particular characteristic in common. It is a sense of fellowship with others, as a result of sharing universal attitudes, interests, and goals. Dance in its creation has been around for more generations than we can trace extending further into what is currently contemporary and modern but once a language of faith spoken in movement amongst tribes or global unities. With this in mind dance from my perspective is seen as a religion for the past is only a place of reference, not residence, and there are in some cases set structures and rules or techniques that make up this organization.
Beliefs are expressed through the present — the “now” — and who is found within these practices could vary depending on its depths, but the activity is engrained and it is a fully embodied cultural behavior. To be dancing is to be living, and the journey is an individuals’ own road in which another soul cannot walk for but only walk with occasionally. This is how I see dance as a community- an ever changing enrollment of people with similar affection for the love of the arts. It can be comparable to a dance class for not everyone taking lessons is looking to become a professional, yet they all share the same space with a passion or care for the value it brings to their life. It is the advocate in God or a higher power who does not attend church weekly but still professes his devotion despite where he is situated.
There is no kindred spirit that connects the dancer to the most immediate for dance is a practice completed alone. In an audition, a choreographer is not looking to take all applicants but maybe one or two based on their individuality or at times specific prospering students. Although there are connections addressed as the dance world is a rather small world, the talent or spirit is found within the drive or the soul where one is not the same as another. In terms of religion, it is the holy ghost, the invisible, where one puts conviction into something unaware of what is to come but still withholding her own light like the sun which can only see itself. Dance is filled with the ability to let doubt overcome confidence. The community contributes to the agreement or principle in which fear only has the upper hand when one worries about the unknown. We as people or dancers take back that power when we embrace the unknown and the infinite possibilities of what beauty can come from it.
However, it is these questions of uncertainty that often keep one up at night provided she is pondering on how to fix her needs or find an answer to the forever aspiring perfection a teacher is asking for. Practice does not need a studio nor a teacher, but it does call for an awareness to our minds, which scribble and doodle with ideas of what could be, desperate to release the fireworks of thoughts that threaten to explode inside us- the fire in our hearts that is consistently in flame burning through even the darkest of times.
Class is what strengthens us from our internal being to our outer all the way down to our fingertips. It sheds light on our face with the single thought that ricochets from one corner of the brain to the next forever a work in progress. Time is then divided as who we were prior to our performance is not who we come out as. Isn’t ironic how an ambition that is billions of miles away feels close in this instance?
I believe we teach best what we most need to learn, thus making the atmosphere when dancing with others often a bittersweet one. We seek for growth much like our muscles do- when pushed to our limits and torn open we recover and grow stronger then we were before. But it works in one of two ways; both rotating like a circle either moving forwards or set back in reverse though never broken. You either feel everything or nothing at all. I do not know which is worse- to feel everything so deeply and intensely in a moment, to cry until you suffocate, to take the pain away with something that only brings more suffering…or to feel absolutely nothing.
We feel numb to the world around us — as if we have stepped out of our bodies to float through life as a ghost and we are just staring off into space grasping tight to a partner in the form of a barre or marley flooring. So we keep floating above- hoping only the right ones will rise to our level. It is a quality encountered within and it goes on overflowing from you. Although a circle is constant the people in it are not. Sometimes they are chosen for you, perhaps the repertory you were invited into caused this, or it is a doing of self-requesting those who are not the dreamers, but the ones that do not sleep and simply carry out their craft even when no eyes see it aside from two.
The only differentiation is with more bodies replicating a movement it allows for a superior circle and development spiritually, whereas a solo limits the vision on a community level- it is only but a representation of it. It is not a new discovery this idea of dance as a community, but it has the potential to indicate diverse definitions based on its context. Some people live in cages with bars (or barres) built from the choices of others either passed down from parents, standards, teachers, peer pressure, or society while others break free. Dance localities are a collective effort of those who consider it is and in what they are doing. There is no membership ID card nor does it limit who can or cannot join. A dancer could take ballet class in Germany or France, and yet the left hand will always be placed on the barre followed by a set of pliés for the first exercise.
Company founder and choreographer Sean Curran once set his work Symbolic Logic on a group of dancers and before leaving his final rehearsal he stated, “It is yours now. Decide what you want, and do just that.” This leaves responsibility and actions that do not come natural to the average in our own hands. Dancing is a practice much comparable to prayer- a person can do it as much as he or she chooses expecting nothing but self-satisfaction in return. The term “community” is subsequently read as open to any for it is only the mind or lack of faith that is locking an individual trapped behind bars.
