Dance Feelings the Author of This Report

Dance Feelings

The author of this report is asked to answer to a few questions relating to dance, how the author feels about it and why. As for the author's relationship with dance, the author is not heavily involved in dancing unless one counts the occasional jaunt to the dance club but the author is much more apt, and is enraptured by, watching dance via live performance or even on television. Even if they are a little contrived or even fake, even shows like So You Think You Can Dance are worth watching at times because of just how wonderful and talented some of the dancers are. Dancers are much like non-vocal musicians who have to speak volumes while speaking no actual words. With dance, music and movement are melded together to tell a story or express a feeling and it is both exquisite and fabulous to see this done well.

Dance absolutely holds value to the author of this report because it is a form of art that should never be squelched or stifled just because some people think its overly sexual or otherwise immoral. There is a lot of dance that can be labeled that way, wrongly or rightly, but the overall sphere of dance encompasses so much more than that and should not be condemned or prevented. People that do not like a certain type of dance can simply ignore it, much like a lot of people who saw the recent VMA performance by Miley Cyrus have surely done. As for the value that others would hold, everyone can perceive a single dance differently and not all dance speaks to all people…and that is OK.

The author of this response absolutely does not dislike dancing. The author does feel that some dancing is juvenile and even insensitive at times but the author tries hard to follow a "live and let live" approach because that is what the author would want from others. Genres that draw the author in include just about anything with a strong beat with recent examples like Lady Gaga even some dubstep examples being the best songs to get something going. The author of this report has been to a number of dance performances but most of them have been classical and ballet in nature rather than dancing that involves more popular and modern music. Much of what the author of this report watches in person, unless one counts what is happening at the club, is based on grace, artistic presence and poise and so forth.

Some dancing, though, does cross the line between intentionally trying to be shocking rather than artistic or even sensual. Madonna had something going when she rolled around on stage in a wedding dress in her now-notorious performance but the recent escapades of Miley Cyrus are just juvenile crap. Her insipid antics continued backstage and it would appear that she is catering the lowest common denominator. While the author of this report would not generally begrudge people making their own musical choices, to suggest that Miley could or should represent the cutting edge of dance is disgusting to even think about. Along the same lines, a woman-beater like Chris Brown should not be the face of any modern dance movie or craze but he is, alas, in the newest treatise of dance movies (which bombed in theaters, predictably, in its first week out).

The other danger, though, is thumbing one's nose at dance that, while not "upper crust" is still impressive and worthy of respect. The "dance off" crews and other modern, young dancers who break dance and do many other creative moves are some of the more impressive dancers that exist out there but a lot of people talk down about them and lump them in with the Miley Cyrus' and such of the world and that just is not right. Talent is talent, plain and simple. This is also true of paintings and music as well as other forms of art. There are gray areas like the infamous "Pisschrist," which was a crucifix submerged in urine. Many thought that the entire and only reason for someone to do that was to incite people but that is far from being the only perspective. However, overly judging people due to their age or cultural cues is obtuse just as being morally depraved just to flip the bird, so to speak, to the so-called morality police.

In the end, dance takes on many forms and is done for a number of different reasons including exercise, performing on the street, performing in a theater, riling up a crowd or otherwise engaging with people in an audience whether it be pre-created or spontaneous. There are ignorant people all around including members of the audience as well as the performers who do their thing. There are always extremes but most of the people in the arena of dance are just trying to have fun and/or entertain people and there is nothing wrong with that as long as no one is being insulted, no one is being endangered and there is at least one redeeming reason for the dance to be done.