Dancing . . . And a Bit of Randomness--Diane Walker--May 13, 2007
Process and product --and perceptions. Dance in my life, with a few side excursions, or how I recently ended up choreographing for five dancers and two remote controlled cars.
Good Morning. I am honored to be your invited speaker. I have been dancing since I was four and still choreograph. I find it difficult to condense life and thought into 15 minutes. I have decided to speak first in general terms about dance and then share more personal experiences recognizing my choice of general terms has been influenced by my perceptions.
I think Dance differs from the other arts in that our instrument --the body--renders it both sinful and essential.
I'd like to begin by reading a wonderful, passionate! inscription in the front of a small book What's Wrong with the Dance?– in its 13th printing in 1953. This is part of a series on Questionable Amusements by Preacher John Rice.
December 14, 1955. Dear Mr. Winkler. I understand you want Roland to dance. Are you a Christian? If you are you would think many times before you would consider asking anyone to dance! I have personal knowledge of broken homes, ruined youth, broken bodies, filled graves, etc.--because of dance. You are not just teaching a student,--you are suppose [sic] to be building a life. If you are a Christian I wish you would think many times before you sell out to dance. The cheapest people I know are those who dance --Roland is not to dance under any circumstances--or any of my children.
Hinton H. Harris
P.S. Please read this book.
How did we get to this point?
Doug Adams, in his book Congregational Dancing in Christian Worship, posits that the priests in the Middle Ages stopped it because dancing by the laity made everyone equal and that didn't fit into their politics of power.
The dance opposition that was ignited with new fervor in the Reformation, and that was carried directly to America, began in a context that emphasized salvation by grace through faith (Luther).
Interestingly--the noun "grace" has carried both a theological and an aesthetic meaning.
Grace, in its theological dimension, connotes good fortune--good will--in contrast to a right or obligation. Martin Luther understood the grace of God to be a free, divine gift and gift connotes that which cannot be earned. "Gift" also applies in artistic performance --from the 15th century forward--graceful dancing connotes ordered and controlled movement which is pleasing to the viewer rather than right or wrong according to moral law.
Ann Wagner, the author of Adversaries of Dance wrote "A positive affirmation of life flows from the concept of grace. . . . A gift brings thanksgiving, joy, celebration. And dancing, in its essence, is celebration. (p. 396)"
So here I want to say "Hurray for our side!" This is great! But it is also a problem due to peoples' perceptions of what grace, or being graceful, means and how it relates to them.
To get away from thinking of The Product --ordered and controlled movement --think of the process of dance as:
1. natural expression --though non-verbal --and
2. a neuromuscular event with perceptual-motor connections.
Schools teach that we have five senses--always omitting our kinesthetic sense (and some would include ESP--which may be related).
The internal sensation you have when you see someone tripping and falling, doing a spectacular dive, or a child happily "dancing mountains" is kinesthesis. This sense is non-verbal yet feeds into brain processing and perception.
Dance communicates through this sense in orderly--AND disorderly ways --and that's OK. It can only be talked about metaphorically and often only by groping for words. Communication is based on what we can call "culturally-understood Universal Gestures" --recognized non-verbally and analogically. The instrument is the body and the elements of dance language parallel the other arts.
Dance has provided me with so many levels of satisfaction and enrichment. Years of practice brought me the joy of autonomous movement --moving on "auto-pilot" --where everything comes together and it is effortless --and joyful --and transcending.
Teaching has always been a journey of discovery--translating what I understood kinesthetically to my students--creating experiences for them which sometimes led to a breakthrough in understanding, risk taking and personal growth. It has always been stimulating--and usually fun.
Choreography and teaching composition have been experiences in which the process is more rewarding than the product. This is probably because it is guided by the creative process and saying "I wonder what would happen if . . ." - trying something and discovering the result. Choreography, like composing in the other arts, has a life of its own. It shows where it wants to go and the choreographer allows that to happen.
I have done two different things with my choreography--choreographed for the stage and also for liturgy.
My interest in liturgical choreography began in the 1960s. My first work here in Moscow was at the Presbyterian Church in 1969, innocently scandalizing some of the congregation by costuming the college dancers in long-sleeved, form-fitting black leotards, long black skirts --- and bare feet. I understand some people left and went to the Methodist Church (I know it was more than me, but this trend was part of it). By 1973 Tom Richardson, as choir director, had invited me to do a full-length piece at the Methodist Church (they couldn't escape me).
This led me to become involved with Jubilate--an ecumenical liturgical arts organization sponsored by the Pacific Northwest Conference of the United Methodist Church. In teaching workshops for the past 20 years, I have been able to explore approaches to choreographing congregational movement to songs--primarily gestural--and to find ways to help people be comfortable with their own gift of grace. I was able to ask "What if . . . " and to find the answer through their generous response and support.
And in 1986 this also led to choreographing for eight Jubilate International Choir Tours and taking my work to almost every continent. The greatest gift it has given me, and all of us on the tours, is to experience how dance crosses the boundaries of language and enables us to share a common activity as congregations join in the movement with us.
The most powerful piece has been to the Communion Hymn--One Bread, One Body (speak words and show gestures). Our first tour was to the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe before the Berlin Wall came down. My strongest memory, still, is of being in a small church in East Berlin where the congregation was invited to mirror the gestures and to join hands with us. It was a powerful and ineffable experience as we established this non-verbal connection. The memory of that particular moment engenders strong emotions even after 20 years.
In choreographing for the concert stage, I have been able to ask "What if I choreographed a dance using the metallic-looking car window sun shades --but using them as anything but . . .?" and they became fans, bonnets and teletubbies tummies.
This past fall I wondered "What if I choreographed a dance which also involved remote controlled cars?" and a dance for "two species," as Engineering Professor Richard Wall termed it, evolved. The title was the same as the one for this presentation--Dancing . . . And A Bit of Randomness. The choreography was interrupted when a car came close to a dancer and she had to react by adding a turn before continuing. Since controlling the cars was not an exact science, we never knew quite when this would happen. I enjoyed the result, but the process of getting there was more fun and we discovered that the two little cars took on personalities of their own. They were quite endearing as they generated that "bit of randomness" into the dance. This was performed in Dancers Drummers Dreamers this March. DDD, a unique collaboration between music and dance is in its 16th year, being a product of Dan Bukvich and me saying "I wonder what would happen if . . . ?"
As I look back, I realize it is this bit of creative thinking --"I wonder what would happen if . . . " that has shaped much of my living. It is more than creating dances; it is a way of looking at life as process and continuing to find the product fun and very interesting.
So I have now gotten myself to the point of asking, "I wonder what would happen if I taught this group my simple, non-threatening, choreography to one of their closing songs 'Go Now In Peace' so they could experience the words non-verbally and communally as well?" And I'm going to discover the answer .
(If you will sing the song once, I’ll show you the gestures. Then I'll explain them and take you through the sequence very slowly).
Thank you for giving me your gift of dance!
P.S. Dance as I define it--a body moving with a heightened awareness of space, time and energy. So everyone can dance!
Good Morning. I am honored to be your invited speaker. I have been dancing since I was four and still choreograph. I find it difficult to condense life and thought into 15 minutes. I have decided to speak first in general terms about dance and then share more personal experiences recognizing my choice of general terms has been influenced by my perceptions.
I think Dance differs from the other arts in that our instrument --the body--renders it both sinful and essential.
I'd like to begin by reading a wonderful, passionate! inscription in the front of a small book What's Wrong with the Dance?– in its 13th printing in 1953. This is part of a series on Questionable Amusements by Preacher John Rice.
December 14, 1955. Dear Mr. Winkler. I understand you want Roland to dance. Are you a Christian? If you are you would think many times before you would consider asking anyone to dance! I have personal knowledge of broken homes, ruined youth, broken bodies, filled graves, etc.--because of dance. You are not just teaching a student,--you are suppose [sic] to be building a life. If you are a Christian I wish you would think many times before you sell out to dance. The cheapest people I know are those who dance --Roland is not to dance under any circumstances--or any of my children.
Hinton H. Harris
P.S. Please read this book.
How did we get to this point?
Doug Adams, in his book Congregational Dancing in Christian Worship, posits that the priests in the Middle Ages stopped it because dancing by the laity made everyone equal and that didn't fit into their politics of power.
The dance opposition that was ignited with new fervor in the Reformation, and that was carried directly to America, began in a context that emphasized salvation by grace through faith (Luther).
Interestingly--the noun "grace" has carried both a theological and an aesthetic meaning.
Grace, in its theological dimension, connotes good fortune--good will--in contrast to a right or obligation. Martin Luther understood the grace of God to be a free, divine gift and gift connotes that which cannot be earned. "Gift" also applies in artistic performance --from the 15th century forward--graceful dancing connotes ordered and controlled movement which is pleasing to the viewer rather than right or wrong according to moral law.
Ann Wagner, the author of Adversaries of Dance wrote "A positive affirmation of life flows from the concept of grace. . . . A gift brings thanksgiving, joy, celebration. And dancing, in its essence, is celebration. (p. 396)"
So here I want to say "Hurray for our side!" This is great! But it is also a problem due to peoples' perceptions of what grace, or being graceful, means and how it relates to them.
To get away from thinking of The Product --ordered and controlled movement --think of the process of dance as:
1. natural expression --though non-verbal --and
2. a neuromuscular event with perceptual-motor connections.
Schools teach that we have five senses--always omitting our kinesthetic sense (and some would include ESP--which may be related).
The internal sensation you have when you see someone tripping and falling, doing a spectacular dive, or a child happily "dancing mountains" is kinesthesis. This sense is non-verbal yet feeds into brain processing and perception.
Dance communicates through this sense in orderly--AND disorderly ways --and that's OK. It can only be talked about metaphorically and often only by groping for words. Communication is based on what we can call "culturally-understood Universal Gestures" --recognized non-verbally and analogically. The instrument is the body and the elements of dance language parallel the other arts.
Dance has provided me with so many levels of satisfaction and enrichment. Years of practice brought me the joy of autonomous movement --moving on "auto-pilot" --where everything comes together and it is effortless --and joyful --and transcending.
Teaching has always been a journey of discovery--translating what I understood kinesthetically to my students--creating experiences for them which sometimes led to a breakthrough in understanding, risk taking and personal growth. It has always been stimulating--and usually fun.
Choreography and teaching composition have been experiences in which the process is more rewarding than the product. This is probably because it is guided by the creative process and saying "I wonder what would happen if . . ." - trying something and discovering the result. Choreography, like composing in the other arts, has a life of its own. It shows where it wants to go and the choreographer allows that to happen.
I have done two different things with my choreography--choreographed for the stage and also for liturgy.
My interest in liturgical choreography began in the 1960s. My first work here in Moscow was at the Presbyterian Church in 1969, innocently scandalizing some of the congregation by costuming the college dancers in long-sleeved, form-fitting black leotards, long black skirts --- and bare feet. I understand some people left and went to the Methodist Church (I know it was more than me, but this trend was part of it). By 1973 Tom Richardson, as choir director, had invited me to do a full-length piece at the Methodist Church (they couldn't escape me).
This led me to become involved with Jubilate--an ecumenical liturgical arts organization sponsored by the Pacific Northwest Conference of the United Methodist Church. In teaching workshops for the past 20 years, I have been able to explore approaches to choreographing congregational movement to songs--primarily gestural--and to find ways to help people be comfortable with their own gift of grace. I was able to ask "What if . . . " and to find the answer through their generous response and support.
And in 1986 this also led to choreographing for eight Jubilate International Choir Tours and taking my work to almost every continent. The greatest gift it has given me, and all of us on the tours, is to experience how dance crosses the boundaries of language and enables us to share a common activity as congregations join in the movement with us.
The most powerful piece has been to the Communion Hymn--One Bread, One Body (speak words and show gestures). Our first tour was to the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe before the Berlin Wall came down. My strongest memory, still, is of being in a small church in East Berlin where the congregation was invited to mirror the gestures and to join hands with us. It was a powerful and ineffable experience as we established this non-verbal connection. The memory of that particular moment engenders strong emotions even after 20 years.
In choreographing for the concert stage, I have been able to ask "What if I choreographed a dance using the metallic-looking car window sun shades --but using them as anything but . . .?" and they became fans, bonnets and teletubbies tummies.
This past fall I wondered "What if I choreographed a dance which also involved remote controlled cars?" and a dance for "two species," as Engineering Professor Richard Wall termed it, evolved. The title was the same as the one for this presentation--Dancing . . . And A Bit of Randomness. The choreography was interrupted when a car came close to a dancer and she had to react by adding a turn before continuing. Since controlling the cars was not an exact science, we never knew quite when this would happen. I enjoyed the result, but the process of getting there was more fun and we discovered that the two little cars took on personalities of their own. They were quite endearing as they generated that "bit of randomness" into the dance. This was performed in Dancers Drummers Dreamers this March. DDD, a unique collaboration between music and dance is in its 16th year, being a product of Dan Bukvich and me saying "I wonder what would happen if . . . ?"
As I look back, I realize it is this bit of creative thinking --"I wonder what would happen if . . . " that has shaped much of my living. It is more than creating dances; it is a way of looking at life as process and continuing to find the product fun and very interesting.
So I have now gotten myself to the point of asking, "I wonder what would happen if I taught this group my simple, non-threatening, choreography to one of their closing songs 'Go Now In Peace' so they could experience the words non-verbally and communally as well?" And I'm going to discover the answer .
(If you will sing the song once, I’ll show you the gestures. Then I'll explain them and take you through the sequence very slowly).
Thank you for giving me your gift of dance!
P.S. Dance as I define it--a body moving with a heightened awareness of space, time and energy. So everyone can dance!
posted by UUCP Sermons at 10:05 AM
