dance in the city
This is a postcard-size book to remember the pure joy of dancing in Cincinnati with Kimber and Flavia and the honors kids of ART3005 seminar.
Our first dance together
Kimber
Flavia
Irene
Matthew
Hanna
Emily
Renner
Alexandra Sydney
Abby
Miranda
Emma
Mira
Meghan
Hoan
Dance as a Discourse In a heavily text-based and object-based academic world, it is also important to look at movement as primary, not secondary social text. Patterns of race, class, gender and nationalities are apparent when one investigates into “dance” as “movement style”. Tracing the history of dance styles can clarify the shifting ideologies attached to bodily discourse. In the United States context, dance forms typically originated from the lower class and moving upward to the more dominant group of people. When dance styles as social practice is flattened into “a series of step to music”, we face the risk of simplify the complexities of the origin and community nature of a cultural group. I was curious why dance typically originates from the lower-class. I am able to answer it partially now. The higher one’s social status is, the more established rules will dictate how one behave, and the less chance one can listen and play along to their “inner dancer”.
It was my first time to acknowledge my “inner dancer” /the human nature’s urge to dance/. Suddenly dancing feels less like an intimidating solo experience. Even when I dance by myself, it has become a dialogue of my outer body and the little inner dancer buddy!
It takes two to Tango On the social dance experience at Tango Del Barrio: At that moment, I was under the illusion that the lights were dimmed off, perhaps because the dance floor suddenly became so intimate and internalized. Two contradicting thoughts went through my mind: on one hand, my “inner dancer” was so eager to join the dancing circle as my feet started to tap along the beat; on the other side of the coin, I felt like a fish out of water, as the dancers were sinking deep into their internal rhythms, such exclusive intimacy between the partners that I almost felt jealous to be left out. Some of them danced with their eyes closed! In contrast with my struggle to maintain eye communication with my dance partner, they are using their bodies to feel the same direction and vibration with their partners. The Tango dancers are using the adjacency of their chest and upper body as a powerful and chief medium of dialoguing in dance. It really “takes two to Tango”!
I would describe the whole scene, in my own words, a concentric collage of pairing bubbles. The bubbles weren’t sharing or open their internal boundaries to their adjacent, much like the internalized experience between the two dancers as they Tango together. However, the bubbles were all flying in the same direction, layering up into a complex scenery that were pleasant to the eyes of the bystanders, but the mutual intimate energy can only be felt between each individual bubbles, and therefore remained a mystery to an outsider like me.
It don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing The 1930s and 40s saw the domination of creative musicianship and its eclectic tastes, with the emergence of Jazz music. When World War II came, inspired by the influx of the “jiving” British, dance bands became more creative and playful. “Swing” was given birth from the core of African American community, as they started to experiment with more interesting and challenging orchestrations. The combination of instrument orchestra and virtuous solo moments, the change in instruments, the shift to 4/4 time and the call-and-response patterns between music sections started to characterize “Swing”, the kind of music that is irresistible to dance. As Swing gradually came into limelight, one can also see the cultural cross-fertilization between the uptown and downtown, among the blacks and the whites.
Norma Miller, legendary Lindy Hopper
The week of Swing dance was among my favourite weeks! Perhaps it’s because of my personal love for Jazz, but also it allowed me to learn so much more about American history, the tension between the blacks and the whites and the new concept of cross-fertilization. When I think about Jazz, I remember the classy quintessential “American” atmosphere when I sat in one of the shows at “Small” in Greenwich Village, New York. For an international student like me, it’s really really an exclusive experience to tap into this native American dance movement! Watching “Alive and Kicking” documentary was a joy and I couldn’t help but jumping on my bed when I saw the Lindy Hoppers danced. The classroom experience was a blast! The positive energy the dance instructors gave us was incredible. Breaking through the awkwardness of dancing with new people on the first weeks, I felt like I was having fun with “friends” in Dance in the City. It’s hard to not become friends when you Swing dance together!
“Dance small!” Swing doesn’t need to be showy!
“the basics” “send follow out” “follow goes”
The Foundation of Ballet Ballet is built upon 5 positions of the feet. To understand this genre as the dancer, one has to understand not only the physical feeling of these positions, but also the psychology behind it. First position is described as straight legs, the two heels one against the other, and the feet turned out equally. This is an unnatural body posture, far departs from everyday deportment, and so it puts one’s body into a highly conscious status. It is the concept of “turn out” and “collect”, described as the concentration that allows one to move instantly in any direction. It elongates your upper body, creates a sense of extreme verticality make one’s body taller and more human. Ballet is compared to battle as two ends of the spectrum, a ballerina would feel like they are always at war with their bodies. Ballet doesn’t give leeway for flaws in body or techniques, as it is founded strongly on the architecture of these basic positions. They will always come back to these positions, a constant circling back, an eternal return that put the dancer into the core of the environment sphere.
Mira’s Creative Response smartly represents the concept of the First Position in Ballet. Related back to George’s Swing class, I found it extremely helpful to understand the gist of the body position when learning a dance genre. Whether it is where to put your weight, whether you should feel “natural”, “earthy” or highly concentrated, to understand the “feel” of the body is the most important factor. The embodying experience for Ballet was the most physically memorable because my muscles hurt for days after the class!
Modern Dance in America On Martha Graham’s “Appalachian Spring”: The dancers dance even when there are no sound, and in those sound-negative movements, it seems like the dancer’s breath is the true sound that guide their bodies. Thanks to the thoughtful camera works of the filmmaker, I feel like my eyes and my “inner dancer” can really feel and breath the same breath with the dancers. Later on, I read more about Martha Graham and her style and learned that it is indeed her signature dance concept: focus on the breathing cycle – inhalation and exhalation – to create the notion of contraction and release of the energy within one’s body. Each movement could separately be used to express either positive or negative, freeing and trapping emotions. I also noticed how close to the ground her choreography is, and therefore the dance carries a weighted and grounded style that is almost opposite with the weightlessness illusion of classical ballet.
Martha Graham was quite against the filming and documenting her dance performances and choreography works. She said the viewer’s experience in that time-specific performance is unique and it is important to feel the dance as you watch it live than through the screen. Is that the same for all kind of theatrical dance? For me, when the dancers dance on stage, I feel like there is a screen between my seat and the edge of the stage, and their compositions appear as flat as viewing it on the screen (I later learned this is “the fourth wall” concept.) While watching a camerawork of someone who is in sync with the dance, I can view it with my “inner dancer” activated. It is also easier to know who to focus on.
The Africanist Roots of American Dance When the Africans were brought to Americas, Africanism imperatively seeped into all facets of daily life – from trends, traits, motifs with African roots, from sport to art to dance and everything in between. The cultural node context of Americas, coined “intertextuality” by the author, created the unique characteristics where Africanist and Europeanist characteristics subconsciously collided and influenced one another. Tracing back to the evidences in many forms of dance one can tell a strong identity of aesthetic principles that are quintessentially Africanist. First, the “get-down” posture. The second trait is “dance many drums”: a polycentric and polyrhythmic dancing body where all parts from shoulders, ribs, belly, pelvis and buttocks participated to articulate the complex rhythm. While the European dance is structured by form, centeredness, control, through which energy is drawn out, the Africanist use energy as the root to dictates and manifests the form. Pure energy is very dynamic and uncontrolled, which leads to the sense of asymmetry, looseness and indirectness of approach.
“Revelations�by Aivin Ailey is characterized as Modern dance with very strong Africanist roots.
Dayton Contemporary Dance Concert at Aronoff Center The Dayton Contemporary Dance Company show was the very first time I came to see a dance performance from a prestigious company with specific mission and strong African American identity. While our classroom has been very engaging since the beginning, I think this was the one time it dawned on me the importance of the “City” portion of our Course title. It would not be the same had I taken this course in New York, Chicago or other cities in America. It is because I take this course at UC in Cincinnati that the way we discuss and write about dance has a certain identity. I remember the excitement of everyone on the schoolbus to Aronoff Center. People dressed up for the concert. Downtown Cincinnati was crowded and glittering with light bulbs and music from night bars and noise. It was a celebratory and magical night and the experience was no less significant than my first time to a Broadway show! It’s just crazy to compare that beautiful night to the current lock-down situation. And I feel so lucky that we still had the opportunity to see such show before the mishap.
At first, it was total excitement. There was no single second of san-drum, no resting moments that I started feeling suffocated, not in a negative way but in the same pleasant sensation when one’s adrenaline reached the highest point. I could see at the Second movement: the staged are set with a dozen chairs placed symmetrically resembling the setting of a worship place. The six women were sitting on one side and started to cross the center to step to the other side of the stage, each one with individual rhythm and intensity.
In my life I had some rare moments that going to church is a way to release the emotions that I couldn’t express in my daily life. So I felt deeply touched when I saw the kind of explosion manifested through the body movements Ulysses Dove created. The dance ended with the six women returning to the original seats on the right side, signifies the completion of a journey. When the music stops, I could feel myself gasping for air at the same exact time the women gasped.
Flying over a few decades, “Indestructible� by Abby Zbikowski is a contemporary piece just released one year ago. It challenged the convention of staged performance to almost satirically. Placing it right after Vespers (despite the intermission) still gave the effect of displacement and confusion, which leads to irony and humor that made the work truly entertaining. There was no music for the performance. And the choreographer deliberately wants the viewers to know how painful it is through the cry of the dancers as they went through it.
Is it a bad thing to laugh loudly in a dance performance, even if it was part of the choreographer’s intention? Does dance as performing art should always bring forth appreciation and pleasant experience? Can it challenge you, discomfort you, trigger your anger and involve your emotionally into the viewing experience?
Hip-hop Culture Hip-hop culture has become a big thing in Asian context, especially in my home country Vietnam only in recent years. I got access to Hip-hop through the underground Vietnamese rap songs and dance battles, and although it has mutated from its origin significantly, I still saw the common core: the real and raw quality, the outlet for oppressed emotions, the state of “in-between” or liminality. But little did I know about the complexity of its beginning, how it ties strongly to the cultural context and the racial tension in the United States. The “circle of dance” concept in Hip Hop strips off the flashiness, bling-bling appearance of the mainstream notion of hip-hop, and take people back to the rawness, the soul, the inner spiritual power that release into body movements rather than the other way around.
Emma’s creative response to the Hip Hop week really speaks to the connection of city and dance culture. She created a mixtape of local Hip hop artists, featuring songs that expresses the emotional and social life of black artists in the Queen City. For instance, Dayo Gold’s “White House Black” which talks about power imbalances in American society. Ohio and Cincinnati are mentioned in “Ohio Livin’” and “Kauriflower,” and even Rohs Street Cafe comes up in GrandAce’s “Cold Coffee” with fellow Cincinnati native internetboy.
“Queen City Mixtape” Playlist on Spotify curated by Emma My creative response to Hip hop is a music box/ 3d-interpretation of how I understand more about Hip hop through Krumping and the conversation with the local artists. I am intrigued by how they emphasized “Knowledge” as the 5th and most important element of Hip Hop, and how the lyrics in Hip hop music covers so many aspects of life that it nurtured their souls and shaped them to become who they are today.
I created a white box and painted the interior black, I then punched holes to invite a look inside the shell, where the music fills the void. Looking from afar, it is just a bland white box, but if one looks close enough, one could see a whole different internal world. I want to illustrate that Hip hop is soulful, raw, real and requires genuine respect and knowledge to penetrate through its external skin. I keep the box closed and limited interior perspectives because for me, I am not inside the culture and what I do is just a foreigner’s respect and love for Hip Hop.
Dance and the Everyday, a Post-Modern Exploration What is your creative ambition? I define “creative work” as to make meaning out of something that people aren’t aware of yet. My creative ambition is challenge people’s perception of seemingly mundane things in life. I believe everything (places, objects, human) has the beginning and a history that give it an identity (or take away its original identity). And if we care enough to observe and think about certain things, we can find so much meaning in our daily life that no one can say their life is boring. In other words, I always feel like I have a mission to document an idea, a moment, to tell people stories I know of, to never take anything for granted; and I hope whatever works I create, would show that I deeply care about what happening around me. And I hope that my care would encourage people to care as well.
“No Manifesto” by Yvonne Rainer
Dance in the city goes virtual! It has been a tough time when Corona Virus came and all our plans got shattered. Not being in class is a pain in the neck for an extrovert like me who gains energy from interacting and dancing with others. I must admit our first virtual class was a bit awkward, and I don’t know how to move forward with the Everyday Dance video and the Collaborative Assignment. But when I received Alexandra’s positive response, the world just seemed a bit brighter.
Alexandra’s adorable illustration as her creative response to our first virtual class made my smile!
Everyday Dance Video Recognizing the beauty of everyday routine! It has been tougher to wake up early as quarantine life goes on. Everyday seems like a endless cycle of mundane solo activities. The assignment allowed me to find a sense of purpose to wake up and feel happy, and enjoy the self-care routine and the ability to go out and breath some fresh air as spring comes. Seeing how my peers dealt with this Everyday Assignment so creatively also inspired me to be more playful and outside of the conventional box of what “dance” is. And it planted a good seed for the upcoming Collaborative Dance Project.
Right: dancing to “Happy Synthesizer” by Megurine Luka & Gumi
Virtual Collaborative Dance
YouTube’s Link to Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEYWNnuNMP0
Initial imagination of the project: 1. Cheerful, optimistic 2. Site-specific 3. Emphasizing on the camerawork 4. Improvisational How we worked: We discussed our personal vision for the project and found that we both are pretty comfortable with camerawork and have an interest in documenting the world around us. Renner had a collection of unused footages for her previous post-modern creative response, and I took on her idea to create my own intepretation of dancing with the built environment. I love the feeling to feed on someone else creative energy and reiterate it in a way that can entice my partner to think of new possibilities. It was a relatively linear process for us because fortunately we understands each other’s vibe effortlessly. It was a fun process to redefine what “dance� is for us, and to be playful and uninhibited in our body expressions.
“Dance in tha City” Project Statement: In the last 7 days, Lauren Renner and I have been dancing around Cincinnati and enjoyed the uniquely empty streets and abandoned places of Quarantine time. How does it feel like to interact with the built environment, with objects and with ourselves when no one is watching? For us, this chaotic vacancy allows lots of freedom: we can be random and silly and release our emotions in the most physical ways. We use “Dance Monkey” by Tones & I as the soundtrack for our dance. The song speaks about the frustration of a street performer being constantly judged by the crowd. Ironically, we are presented with a social distant world where more often than not, we are the only entity in a public space. The whole city became a playground for us, and we became the dance monkeys, having fun without fear of being judged by the civilized crowd. By picking sites that portraying the city during Quarantine time, we also hope to reflect a bit of the zeigest, giving our dance a specific and unique context.
Our last dance together
Kimber
Flavia
Irene
Matthew
Hanna
Emily
Renner
Alexandra Sydney
Abby
Miranda
Emma
Mira
Meghan
Hoan
the end