My first memory of dance is appearing as one in a bouquet of daisies at age 6 or 7 in a show at the local community center. We moved soon after and I didn’t dance again until High School. While I could keep up with six weeks of tap lessons and the bare bones choreography of our show choir routines, I was never more than a mediocre dancer. In college, all theater majors were required to take a dance class. We focused on modern expression and the course work was rigorous. Even as I enjoyed the exploration, I felt awkward and took advantage of more than one opportunity to skip class to sip bloody marys and discuss literature instead. Still, even this small amount of dabbling came in handy when I began reviewing musical theater.
Being an arts journalist who makes art as well as write about it, I wasn’t surprised to see experiential learning on the NEA Institute schedule. I don’t think one needs to be an expert in a subject to write about it credibly but some knowledge of the artistic process and awareness of challenges artists face is advantageous.
Kay Cole’s dance class stumped me from the top. You want me to what? Cross the room, how? It was as if my feet were frozen to the ground. I was so self-conscious, so aware of my own body … She knew what the problem was. Asked to follow her across the room and required to focus outside myself, I was freed to move. Other than remind me how much harder dancing is than it looks, I’m not sure how the class might inform my future writings.
Working on this flip project documenting our experience has validated my instinct that dance asks for a more visual coverage. Explaining the language of choreography to audiences is less intimidating armed with the capability to record examples in motion. I’m still don’t feel qualified to review a dance performance but I do look forward to learning with my readers while capturing more effective stories about the art of creating in dance.
--alicia
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