exploring DANCE

exploringDANCE

Three girls from three different cultures all found ties to their roots through dance. by maya packer

hile some people use our movements, we’re able to express our culture,” Gupta said. Ancestry.com to feel Steele started her dance career 11 years ago because of a dress. more rooted in their During a sewing lesson, her little sister was enchanted by a sparkly culture and origins, Irish dancing dress. Her sister decided to start practicing Irish others live it out dance, so she could have a dress of her own. Steele was along for the everyday. One way to get ride and began dancing as well. in touch culturally is to “I did it for a couple years, and, eventually, I fell in love with it,” practice the traditions Steele said. of the culture, which includes Irish dancing has two different styles, hard shoe and soft shoe. dance. As one of the oldest forms “Soft shoe looks a little more like a ballet shoe, and it’s a lot of of art, dance is found all over the jumping and up on your toes,” Steele said. “Hard shoe is also a lot world in different variations. of up on your toes and jumping. You make beats kind of like tap Megha Gupta ‘20, Mary Claire Steele ‘20 and Ryann Phillips ‘20 dancing on the floor [by banging] all your weight on your leg to all danced. For these girls, dance was an expression of not only their make really loud sounds.” culture, but also their art. While Gupta gracefully glided across the Steele’s Irish roots stem from her great grandfather, who came stage in her lehenga, Steele jumped around the pub to boisterous to America during the Irish famine of the 1840s. While her mother’s cheers from the crowd in a blinged-out dress and hard shoes, and side does not have documentation, she believes they are also of Irish

Phillips artfully connected many styles into each dance move during descent. her dance competitions. Gupta, Steele and Phillips came from “I would say I express my culture most on St. Patrick’s Day different backgrounds culturally, but they shared the same passion because every year we go around to pubs, nursing homes, charity for dancing and connecting to their cultural roots. events, and we also do the St. Patrick’s Day Parade,” Steele said of Gupta started dancing at the age of five, inspired by the her dance team. performances of her grandmother. Not only is Irish dancing a physical manifestation of her culture “Seeing her perform on stage when I was little, it was an inspiration and heritage, but it has also become an integral part of Mary Claire’s for me because I saw how passionate she was about it,” Gupta said. life.

“I felt that this was a way for me to connect with not only her but also my culture.” Gupta practiced a classical Indian dance style called Kathak, used as a religious devotion. Although “Through dance, we are telling a story

Gupta did not view herself as a deeply religious person, she used dance as a way to pay homage to her from our culture.”

Indian heritage. “I’m a third generation Indian American,” Gupta Megha Guptasaid. “Both my parents [were] born here, and I was born here. We’re a lot more disconnected from our original Indian heritage, so doing Kathak allowed me to reconnect with my culture.” “Dancing is pretty much my entire The moves in Kathak are all deliberate and elegant. They each life,” Steele said. “It takes a lot of time, and I love it. I have a passion represent something in Indian culture such as a story or a god. for it.”

Many times, dancing Kathak means the dancers are telling a story Phillips began her journey with dance when she was just three years from their culture. old and has been involved in many different dance styles including “[Through] how we use our body and how we use our arms and ballet, contemporary, modern, tap and Moja. Moja dance–a mixture 20

of modern, jazz and West African dance–connected her to her person,” Gupta said. “Dance let me see who I was outside of school origins. and who I could become with the emotional and inner balance that “I’m straight African American,” Phillips said. “None of my I found. I don’t know where I’d be without it.” parents or immediate family is from Africa. We’re all from America, After years of dancing, she also formed strong relationships with and I still don’t know where my family is from in Africa.” her fellow dancers. Not knowing exactly where their ancestors hailed from is a “I’ve made so many friends in my class. They’re all seniors with common plight of African Americans, but Ryann did not let that me. So [through] the journey we’ve been on since third or fourth stop her from trying to connect with those roots. grade up until now, we formed an unbreakable bond together,” “Knowing that I’m dancing movements that are straight from Gupta said. West Africa [and] dancing movements that I know have strict Steele, similarly, used dance to escape the stress of teenage life. rooted tradition from West Africa, it really makes me feel like I can “Irish dance has always been kind of like an outlet and escape combine the technical dancing that [I’ve] been doing all my life, like from the world because it’s not school related. When you dance, you ballet and modern, with something that a long, long time ago [my] kind of feel free,” Steele said. ancestors were a part of,” Phillips said. While she said dance was challenging and could be hard to As a dancer who had only been trained in technical dance styles, manage when exams Moja allowed Phillips to step out of her comfort zone and show her come around, it still versatility. gave Steele a feeling “I feel like sometimes in dance, it’s hard to be a well-rounded she couldn’t find dancer that’s able to do traditional movements like West African as anywhere else. well as technique like ballet,” Phillips said. “Moja combines all of nnn“Sometimes, if those styles, and to combine that technical training with the West you just put your African movements is really cool for me because heart into it, you feel I can branch out of only being the technical on top of the world,” dancer.” Steele said. Dancing Moja allowed Phillips to break For Phillips, dance through the labels placed on her as a dancer. It was something that took her focus from her stressful taught her to not box herself into one style of school life to her empowering dance life. dance. “Dance has always been an outlet,” Phillips said. “When you put yourself in a box, I feel like your “As I was going through the first semester of my mind already settles on the fact that you can’t do junior year, this really hit me because I would go to certain stuff,” Phillips said. “I know how to do school all day, and then I would start dance at 5:30 other styles, but I’ve always said contemporary p.m. and not get out till 9 p.m. I always had to be is my thing. After dancing Moja, I feel like I present in each place, whether I was at school, I had opened my mind to different possibilities. Now, to be present there, or whether I was at dance, I had instead of saying I’m a contemporary dancer, I to be present there, even though my mind might say I’m a dancer, which is a lot want to think about the next test or project that was more powerful.” coming up.” For all of the girls, dance Separating school and dance was important to Phillips, so she became an escape from the could put her all into both. world and their forum to “I had to think: okay, at school, this is when you can put all your decompress and express work in and be focused,” Phillips said. “Once you go to dance, you themselves. have to let yourself go, and be free to be who you are.” “Dancing has really After 13 years of practice and dedication, dance become a safe impacted my life,” Gupta space for Phillips. It was a constant in her life, especially through said. “It gives me an escape the transition of transferring to Woodward. because I take it every Sunday. From the top: Megha Gupta, Ryann Phillips and “Dance is something that will never judge me,” Phillips said. It’s a way to wrap up my week Mary Claire Steele. Photos courtesy of Gupta, Phillips and Steele “I’ve always felt like I can turn to dance.” and get me more focused on Dance even allowed her to form long-lasting bonds in Middle heading into the next week. It School as a new kid in unfamiliar surroundings. helps me find mental balance of balancing school and activities and “I met my entire group of friends in my seventh grade dance then finding time to do the things that I love.” class,” Phillips said. “We all got really close. Lauren [Thomas] and Kathak not only gave Gupta balance in her life, it also taught I have always connected through dance, and that’s my best friend. I her about her Indian culture and brought her closer to her religion. love her so much.” “It got me connected to my religion as well. [Without it,] I don’t While Gupta, Steele and Phillips all had different journeys in think I’d be as knowledgeable about my culture or my religion,” their dance careers and connected to different cultures through Gupta said. “It’s greatly impacted me in allowing me to know more dance, they all shared their love and appreciation for not just dance about myself and where I come from.” itself, but what it brought into their lives. Dance is the balancing factor in Gupta’s life, giving her a medium “I think anybody should try dance to bring themselves peace and to escape the stress of school and to learn more about herself. to find who they are,” Gupta said. “Without [dance], I don’t really think I would know who I am as a