Gray at Fame or Famine wrote a post today discussing Dance War, and in that context commenting on my idea that dancers need to fit their dance to the music. He then described studying modern dance, and learning to "ignore the music" - I had a very strong response to this. I wrote comment after comment defending dancing to music, and deleted every one of them :) For me, the idea of ignoring the music feels fundamentally in opposition to my experience of dancing. what I finally ended up writing was much less upset-sounding than where I started.
So, of course, since my first response was so emotional, so I had to stop and think more objectively about what was driving my emotion. On the drive home from a meeting tonight, I realized what made me feel that way.
The most sublime dancing I have ever seen has all had one thing in common: Improvisational dancing to live music where the dancer and the musician interact and play off of each other. This is certainly one of the things that made me fall so thoroughly in love with bellydance... but also, I have seen flamenco that has made me cry - performed by just a dancer and a lone guitarist. And I remember once going to a Brazilian club to see Samba dancers and a live band, and was just blown away by the sheer energy and life force filling the room.
So in that context having the dancer ignore the music? It completely removes even the suggestion of that dancer-musician synergy. Even when the dancer is dancing to recorded music, a really great dancer can evoke at least a suggestion of that connection. But to purposely remove it? for me that removes exactly the most magical part of watching dance for me.
What it really underlines for me is that dance is intensely personal. That my experience of dance and Gray's are fundamentally different. I'm even willing to venture that he and I could go to the same performance, and come out seemingly have watched two completely different things.
There has been so much discussion in the dance blogosphere about how to increase the attendance at dance performances and get more attention and money directed towards dance. I am starting to wonder if one thing that has been overlooked in this discussion is the huge breadth of the ways people experience dance, and that you can't make the assumption that what you take away from a performance is the same thing that other people will. In that respect, the best way to get audiences excited to to figure out what touches *them* about dance, then make sure each potential audience member is made aware of shows that mesh with the things that turn them on.
I don't know... I'll have to think about this some more.
I totally understand you. One of the best BD performances was by Naimah from Baltimore (she usually does either dark tribal fusion or goth BD. which are not always my preferred styles but she rocks both of them http://youtube.com/profile?user=tallfeather ). We performed at a Tribal Pura show together, and after our slot my troupe mate and I sat together to watch her. We were practically squealing with excitement; it was not just that she was good, it's that she had really merged her dance skill, the presentation, the music, and the look. Afterwards I told my friend, "I can't believe I know her, she's so awesome!"
Posted by: Amy | January 11, 2008 at 08:24 AM
Great response! And let me be the first to say that I am NOT advocating the removal of that connection - I've also done drumming and performing in Middle Eastern dance, and I love that connection too.
No, my objection was kind of the same as yours to my point - I think we thought the other was saying this is how all dance has to be. And of course it's not - I love grooving to the beat as much as the next person.
What I don't like is the beat making me move when I don't want to. My own favorite form of dance is Contact Improv - and whether to music or not, I love sometimes moving with it, and sometimes letting it be a counterpoint (which can be a different way to interact with the performer).
at the very least, I'd love to go to a dance performance with you, because I suspect we'd have some areas of appreciation that overlap, and others that complement, and I bet we'd both learn a lot.
Posted by: Gray Miller | January 11, 2008 at 11:30 AM
I'm glad you posted a response to Gray's post. I haven't seen Dance War and therefore didn't feel like I could really respond, but I'm glad you've opened it up to a larger issue. You may really be on to something about how people experience the same thing completely differently.
Like you, I came to dance through a medium where the music and the dancing are integrally entwined. I fell in love with salsa because of the connection I felt with the music and with the way it compelled me to move. I'm incapable of listening to salsa without dancing, and doing salsa without the music just feels wrong. So I come to other styles of dance with that experience, with that motivation for dancing.
I also think it needs to be said, in the vein of reality TV, that there is a difference between *intentially* dancing without or against music, and just *not having a sense of rhythm*.
There are other things far beyond music that can differentiate our experiences.
Reading a professional critic's review of show after I'd posted mine made me realize that we'd experienced the same show in two completely different ways. The differences came from each of our relationships to dance, generational differences, and knowledge base, among other things.
I am rambling on and on here, but I think this is a worthwhile discussion that you have started.
Posted by: Maria | January 11, 2008 at 11:40 AM
My opinion is, for what its worth... dance has to be a visual reflection of the music- otherwise its just movement, no matter how beautiful it is, rather than dance.
I like your blog and am going to recommend it in mine, assuming thats ok with you. You might be interested in having a look at mine. I live and work as a dancer in Cairo, Egypt.
www.bellylorna.blogspot.com
Posted by: Lorna | January 24, 2008 at 02:23 PM