Dance Subcultures

The first experience of watching a ballet, for me or any little girl, can be fascinating and exhilarating. Wondering how a dancer can be so steady on her toes as she spins in circles and leaps through the air. Watching a ballet, there is a feeling of wanting to be graceful, as well as the warm sensation felt by a little girl as she slips into dream land. My mom had taken me to my first ballet when I was 11 years old. When we returned home home, she signed me up for classes at the local dance center. The expectations to become a prima ballerina would involve much hard work and concentration. I knew when I started it would take years of steady practice and commitment. Learning the history of ballet and the famous

Dance began as a form of communication and storytelling. Thousands of years ago dancing served as a way for people to tell a story and helped distract themselves of the hardships they faced. Furthermore, dance was a form of storytelling through communication, which then turned into using storytelling through dance as entertainment. According to the History World, many dancers during the BC time danced in front of only a few people to get a story across. That later turned into hundreds of thousands of people as dance was used by many. Today, dance is also a form of entertainment and storytelling, but in a modern sense. However, today perfection and technique are stressed more than they were in the past. Yet, the passion for dance has not changed. Many dancers who share this passion also have many of the same qualities. Among a discourse community of trained dancers, one expects to find individuals who are healthy and active athletes, expect perfection from themselves through competition, and religiously attend dance performances.

I have been dancing since the age of two. When asked about my career aspirations, there is no hesitation before saying “I want to be a dancer.” Being a dancer means putting all other distractions aside, and focusing on my craft. Currently, I dedicate over forty hours a week to dance, which is a schedule that requires sacrifice. When I am dancing, the rest of the world fades away, slipping out of my mind with relaxed importance. For that moment in time, I am completely free, wholly focused on my goals, letting me know dance is what I’m meant to do. With this realization comes a responsibility to myself and the work I have put into improving my craft thus far, and I know I must seek out the best opportunities for growth and continued learning.

I had just moved to Washington state and I auditioned for the local dance studio’s competition team for fun. I had no idea how talented they were. And I was just an untrained recreational dancer…Not surprisingly, I didn’t earn a coveted spot on the team it the first time I auditioned. That didn’t stop me from training seriously and auditioning for the team each year until I made it. And here I stand, now starting on my sixth year on the team and as one of the last people from my original team who decided not to quit when they started high school. Dance isn’t just twirling around in pretty pink tutus. What the general population doesn’t picture when they think of dance is the tremendous amount of strenuous work and the blood and sweat and tears that goes into every performance and competition. Certain dancers can’t handle it and quit when they realize they don’t have the passion. My passion keeps me living and breathing and most importantly, dancing, when times get

important foundation in understanding the broader scope of how dance can be seen as a

I have danced every year of my life since. I am humbled to say, that through long days and nights in the studio, sacrificing time with my friends and family, all of the blood, sweat, and tears, I have accomplished what I have been working for since I was a little girl waddling around swallowed in a big pink tutu. I was chosen for the lead role of Cinderella in the Danscompany of Gainesville’s “Cinderella Ballet.” This accomplishment is a reflection of my consistent and sustained work ethic. This tenacity is reflected in other areas of my life and will be a defining characteristic that I carry to

The choreography of Danielsen’s life goes far beyond the corners of dance. Ever since the day she stepped foot into a dance studio, she has had big dreams and lets nothing stand in her way of accomplishing them. “I saw myself as a prima ballerina, but when I actually started to dance, my dream turned into being able to execute well and being able to perform in any

The story of Misty Copeland, a young African American girl, does not begin with her as a talented young dancer; in fact, she didn’t begin ballet until she was thirteen years old. However, she had always loved performing, acting, and dancing, especially when she could achieve her mother’s praise by performing well. When she was finally introduced to ballet, she hated it in the beginning. Her teacher, Cindy Bradley, saw much potential in her though, and so Misty continued to dance. She became known as a prodigy, with her long, slender, hyperextended legs that could bend this way and that,

I first emerged into my dance career and training at age of 13. What started as an hobby immediately turned into a passion of mines unexpectedly and from that point I desperately wanted to continue my passion of dance. I first trained in hip-hop, contemporary, ballet, West-African and improvisation. All together my dance director and former Urban Bush Women Valerie Winborne- Anderson combined all these styles together forming the dance fusion company V2W. In the 8 years of training with V2W I developed a deep connection in dance my dancing. This experience shifted my original perceptions of dance and I must say that this experience helped with foundation and the development in my pedagogy and teaching philosophy.

American dancer Isadora Duncan once said, “The real American type can never be a ballet dancer. The legs are too long, the body too supple and the spirit too free for this school of affected grace…“ (Needham, 2002, p. 199). Contrary to her belief, after more than 80 years later, today ballet has flourished and become a important part of Americaan dance culture. It is no longer a foreign image to see American girls in tutus and leotards taking ballet lessons at a young age. However, ballet was not always seen in a positive light in the United States. As a country that highly encouraged independent thinking, early Americans wanted to distinguish itself from European arts to be recognized as a culture of its own. Yet, today ballet is seen everywhere

Someone whose supposed purity and goodness shone through. This is where I believe the focus on dancer’s bodies began. From nearly it’s beginning, ballet has sought out an image or persona to be fulfilled by the dancers. Today a typical dancer’s body type is slim, with a long neck, short to medium torso, long legs and arms to proportion, high arches of the feet, and a fairly flat chest. Height requirements are dependent on the company’s desires. There is so much a dancer, at the professional level has to focus on. When it is time for contracts to be renewed, not only do the thoughts of “am I still good enough of a dancer” arise, as well as “can I move up? Are more people better than I am and progressing faster?” but there is also a worry of “does my body still fit the company’s desires.” Sometimes a company will reject a dancer, not because her technique is lacking, but because her body type is not what they have envisioned for that company’s image. It’s no wonder 78% of dancers struggle with some sort of anorexia or

Throughout my early years of dance, I began to learn several styles and techniques in my classes at my studio. Not only was my knowledge of dance increasing, but my love for it was as well.

Last Tuesday, we talked about the changes of dance positions and partner relationships. The classical ballet dancers had to follow strict rules: heels touching with toes turned out, arms shaping an oval, and necks staying upright. More interestingly, a couple of ballet dancers did not face each other because it could bring something out between the man and woman partner. However, contemporary choreographers have broken the taboos and opened the new prospects in dance field. Unlike Isadora Duncan who subverted the traditional dance style, some choreographers maintained beautiful customs while they made small cracks in the classical dance forms. For instance, George Balanchine introduced incurved legs, and designed face-to-face ballet choreography.

Dance and me were inseparable. Though my type of dance was much different than the typical dances performed here, it didn’t stop me from performing my cultural, Bollywood dance. In high school, I performed at Vestal High School’s Talent Fest. This was the first time I went on stage in front of an unknown audience. I didn’t know what to expect because I knew they couldn’t understand the words to the songs, and the way I moved would be eccentric to them. To my surprise, however, the audience roared in between and at the end of the dance. This performance spread the new cultural activity in our school like wildfire. Many people even wanted to learn how to do Bollywood

Modern dance is less a of system or technique but rather, an outlook towards dance, an approach that enables artistic individuality. The evolvement of modern dance led way for the development of personal choreographic styles that would allow women to proclaim their independence, artistically and socially. Unlike ballet’s curved and symmetrical lines, modern dancers used angular asymmetries in order to break the traditional images of dance. Many modern dance pioneers had studied ballet, which they rejected, describing the disdained frills and glamour as confining and European. Modern dance has continued to develop through the learning of young dancer going beyond and rebelling against their elders. Throughout the 1920’s dance was prominent