Dialectics: Expression and Dance

Expression and Dance:
At first glance, this comparison seems blatantly obvious... until you're a dancer. The world naively considers dance as an expression in itself, because a good dancer portrays a raw emotion that simple talking, walking, or running can't express. But there's the catch; it has to be a good dancer. Harnessing that emotion and making it clear and beautiful to watch is tough, to say the least.

Technique makes a dance materialize, but expression makes it beautiful. The most precisely executed step can look awkward and ugly if only half of the body is engaged. Emotion comes easily only when your mind is focused and concentrated, yet at the same time you have to let the steps carry you away. If that sounds complicated, it's because it is. It's a tender balance that makes the difference between a dance and dancing. What makes it beautiful and real comes from how you feel and how you capture an emotion and present it through movement.

My friend and I are choreographing a dance for a club at school. It is honestly one of the most difficult projects I've been faced with. To explain it the best I can: a song is around three minutes. Three minutes passes in the blink of an eye when you're out with friends, reading, or watching TV, but when you have to fill in the movements in those three minutes? It feels like forever. A moment is a step, a turn, a leap. I'll be relieved to have come up with a combination for a line in the song, only to be faced with the fact that it's just 5 seconds. Every move must be deliberate; there's no room for weak arms or standing still. And if that wasn't taxing enough, then we have to present our moves, make them speak to others without explanation or endless excuses. If it doesn't work, the moment has passed and you just have to move on. It's impossible to stop and say that "Well you see, that move was inspired by a clock, the rhythm of time is represented by the jerkiness of the arms here..." your audience has to get it, whether consciously or unconsciously.

We present it with our faces, with the way our bodies slump to hint defeat, straighten to declare confidence. It's hard to hide concentration- teachers say they can see it plastered on my face when I'm learning a new combination. But we 'must make it look effortless'. This motto is etched into us from the first jump. Whether leaping, extending, curling, spinning, we must think as a dancer but be a character in the same second. Expression makes the dancer, makes her relatable to the people sitting in the plush seats of the auditorium. The dance is just the footsteps, when it all comes down to it. It's our job to make them speak.