Also, dance is a powerful healer. It not only communicates emotion from the
dancer to the audience, but it also actually heals the dancer from the inside out. It’
s a beautiful release for pent up, undealt-with emotions, a release that won’t harm
anyone, and will even help the dancer to understand his/her feelings more
completely. Exercise in any form has long been known to be a good emotional
release. Dance is unique in that you don’t just exercise, you express, release, and
deal with emotion through your body language.
Dance is, in effect, mostly exaggerated body language. And what is body
language? The natural expression of emotions. Great dance isn’t just robotically
performing one movement after another, as if you were in an assembly line.
Precision is great in dance, but not without emotion and depth. But for the
expression of that much emotion in front of an audience, you’ve got to have
something that only great dancers ever possess – courage.
It’s hard to open yourself up, become transparent, and show more than just the
“mask” face that you feel comfortable with. Most dancers have a mask – have
you ever noticed that? It could be any emotion – a happy face, a fakey funny face,
a stoic face. Which emotion you feel most comfortable expressing is different for
each person. But we should try for more in dance. In fact, after you watch most
dancers perform more than 3 dances, you start to realize that they could dance for
hours and you’d see nothing really new. That’s all they’ve got. Boring.
I challenge you to reach inside and bring out your inner self. Maybe take an
acting class, or try some exercises for showing more emotions and connecting in
different ways with your audience. Try those choreographies you haven’t gotten
around to because they’re “a little different” than what you normally do. If you’re
always a happy dancer, try something sad or angry if you want. If you’re a stoic
dancer, incorporate some humor into your next project.
Dance yellow, blue, or white, dance smoke, fire, wind, or water.
Don’t make dance just one more way to hide who you are – express it all, and let
dance be a complete expression of life in all it’s gorgeous array of emotions and
situations.
~ Raven
5/22/2008, The Gypsy Kiss
dancer to the audience, but it also actually heals the dancer from the inside out. It’
s a beautiful release for pent up, undealt-with emotions, a release that won’t harm
anyone, and will even help the dancer to understand his/her feelings more
completely. Exercise in any form has long been known to be a good emotional
release. Dance is unique in that you don’t just exercise, you express, release, and
deal with emotion through your body language.
Dance is, in effect, mostly exaggerated body language. And what is body
language? The natural expression of emotions. Great dance isn’t just robotically
performing one movement after another, as if you were in an assembly line.
Precision is great in dance, but not without emotion and depth. But for the
expression of that much emotion in front of an audience, you’ve got to have
something that only great dancers ever possess – courage.
It’s hard to open yourself up, become transparent, and show more than just the
“mask” face that you feel comfortable with. Most dancers have a mask – have
you ever noticed that? It could be any emotion – a happy face, a fakey funny face,
a stoic face. Which emotion you feel most comfortable expressing is different for
each person. But we should try for more in dance. In fact, after you watch most
dancers perform more than 3 dances, you start to realize that they could dance for
hours and you’d see nothing really new. That’s all they’ve got. Boring.
I challenge you to reach inside and bring out your inner self. Maybe take an
acting class, or try some exercises for showing more emotions and connecting in
different ways with your audience. Try those choreographies you haven’t gotten
around to because they’re “a little different” than what you normally do. If you’re
always a happy dancer, try something sad or angry if you want. If you’re a stoic
dancer, incorporate some humor into your next project.
Dance yellow, blue, or white, dance smoke, fire, wind, or water.
Don’t make dance just one more way to hide who you are – express it all, and let
dance be a complete expression of life in all it’s gorgeous array of emotions and
situations.
~ Raven
5/22/2008, The Gypsy Kiss
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Loneliness, anger, frustration, awkwardness – these might not be what you
think of when you picture dance in your mind, especially belly dance. But like
with all art forms, especially dance, the idea of dancing is to communicate
emotion to the audience. You know you’ve accomplished this when the audience
responds with a matching emotion. Jubilant clapping after an energetic, joyful
dance piece, or a pregnant silence after a powerful piece.
Sensuality and playfulness are often connected to Oriental dance, and anger
might be what certain ATF (American Tribal Fusion) dancers think of in
conjunction with this part of the belly dance community. But there needs to be
more than that – dance should be as complex and quixotic as the person
performing it. Multifaceted emotions are a rare and wonderful thing in a dancer
– and it’s what separates a dancer who’s good at memorizing a choreography or
good at improv (a good dancer) from a dancer who can move an audience,
pouring emotion out in this singularly wonderful art form, and bringing the
audience along with her emotionally for the ride (a GREAT dancer).
think of when you picture dance in your mind, especially belly dance. But like
with all art forms, especially dance, the idea of dancing is to communicate
emotion to the audience. You know you’ve accomplished this when the audience
responds with a matching emotion. Jubilant clapping after an energetic, joyful
dance piece, or a pregnant silence after a powerful piece.
Sensuality and playfulness are often connected to Oriental dance, and anger
might be what certain ATF (American Tribal Fusion) dancers think of in
conjunction with this part of the belly dance community. But there needs to be
more than that – dance should be as complex and quixotic as the person
performing it. Multifaceted emotions are a rare and wonderful thing in a dancer
– and it’s what separates a dancer who’s good at memorizing a choreography or
good at improv (a good dancer) from a dancer who can move an audience,
pouring emotion out in this singularly wonderful art form, and bringing the
audience along with her emotionally for the ride (a GREAT dancer).
Stumble It!