The Beginning of a Conversation...

Dance is not about finding the latest "fad" and following it. Searching for a mold to squeeze into, with the hopes of "looking the part" isn't it, either.

     I can remember my younger dance days being guided by a thought process that led me to believe, how I looked outwardly was more important than the essence of why we were being trained. It wasn't until my college years- I realized the art of dance, at its truest and most pure, is an inward exploration that is expressive and progressively developed when you possess undying passion and integrity. Like any other art form, sport, or endeavor, each day will not be spectacular. You won't always feel productive, your very best or "on your leg". There is always something to work towards, to learn. However, an overly-presented outward look will never be able to substitute the passion that develops integrity, that drives excellence at any cost, even when all eyes are not on you.

There is this weird thing that has been happening in the dance world for years but has bubbled over with obsession in the past few months. I remember being a middle school dance student at Parkway Middle School of the Arts and being introduced to the extensive legacy of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre and Linda Celeste Sims. Yes! Mrs. Sims was plastered all across my agenda (that rings relevant even today since AAADT is completely timeless). During that time I was exposed to the royalty and reverence of dance. To me, that is what mattered. That drew me closer to dance way before I would dive into its education and core, historical values for myself. One upon a time, to see a dancer was to see kings and queens. To see dance was to see this rarity that you dreamed of and wanted to work for and connect to because in order to do it well; to do it with meaning you had to dig deep. "Not just anyone can dance!". Reminiscing on my early encounters with this passion, I image that statement accompanying my thoughts.

We are in a time where the emphasis of dance art in being placed on how many cool photo shoots we can do, how high we can throw up our legs, the things we can do to appear dedicated to this craft, and  how many times we can spread to social media's masses that we are working so hard to attain meaningless perfection. Don't get me wrong, never-ending lines, the highly anticipated adage developpe, unexpected balancing and perched pirouettes are amazing. In fact, they are the cherry on top but only when our goal is to share rather than to prove and be approved. Superficial dance will never be the art's truth because dance is to be felt and experienced. Dance has the potential to be healing, enlightening, encouraging and should be personable. It just seems that today, most of the goals are to be proficient instead of effective.

There are so many great trailblazers who have gone before us. They left plenty to feast off of. Dance has to be brought back to the art of dance.