Just thinking
Firstly: I am rubbish at blogging. I haven’t written to you in ages.
Secondly: Yes I have been learning
And No: I haven’t been thinking abut nothing.Technically I have found that if you try to think about nothing then your thinking about ‘nothing’ and therefore thinking about something. If this is already confusing for you then forgive me I may be passing on my stress and worries via blog writing, which is unavoidable for me at the moment.
Firstly: I would just like to list the things that I think or feel when I move or dance: not thinking, my boyfriend, sun, Ollie laughing, Sitting on a hot stone wall, own a giant helicopter, satisfaction, frustration, eating melting ice-cream, pain, heart beat, exhilaration, breath, feeling of importance etc. These have been just a few things I have noticed myself writing after or during class. You could say these things are important or less important. However I am also sure that your categorisation would be different to my own.
Secondly: What is community dance? Coming to the end of my placement I am returning to the one of the most important questions that I seem to be continually asking myself: What is community dance, who is it for and what part do I have to play in it? I never thought it would be way to answer this question. But the experiences and responsibilities that I have had while working with and along side Natasha have been invaluable. I have had the chance to facilitate as well as participate, which has allowed me to see the benefits and set backs of working in so-called ‘community’ environments. At the moment I am trying to figure our what classify something as being a community project. According to Merriam Webster Dictionary a community is a “the people with common interests”. Other definitions use the word “gathering”. Why is it then that we day those who are not trained or practice dance on an-untrained level/ un-professional (what ever this means also) are community dancers? Surely a group of dancers from the Scottish ballet are also community dancers, since they have come together specifically to achieve the same goals and share the same interests.
And No: I don’t know all the answers to why people are so called MOVED to dance. I can only so far speak from my own involvement and interaction with others. It definitely seems more than just the achievement of skill, precision and perfection but more about the personal satisfaction that comes from expression in a form, which doesn’t occupy our lives on a daily basis, yet manages to speak out on personal tones. Better yet, it Like in film scenes. Where the character is unable to speak the words he/she means and the director relies on the dance sequence that takes the character and audience through an emotional journey, revealing insecurities as well as personal.
