Analysis of the Nature of Social Dance - Essay Example

?COMMUNITY DANCE: THEORY AND PRACTICE In the United Kingdom, the community dance movement has been one of themost active movements in the organization various dance projects and delivering them to the audience in the most entertaining and cultural way (Harding & Sutherland, 2010, p. 18). Nonetheless the movement has been faced by challenges related to the reduced funding for performing arts from the government. There are however initiatives for social inclusion theory in community dancing where the participation of the diverse groups and members of the society is encouraged. Such initiatives aim at ensuring that the members of the society are not excluded from the mainstream opportunities in community dances and dancing competition such as the Big Dance Olympics. Harney (2001, p 75) reflects that the practice of community dance involves the participation of various groups even those which are not directly associated with the contemporary and traditional art forms. This essay gives a critical examination and discussion on the nature of community dance with an aim of illustrating how theory and practice are applicable in the community dance within Europe. Demonstration of various dance projects and workshops and illustration of the dance Olympics are applied within the discussion of the essay. According to Adair & Brett (2005, p. 35), a community dance is a movement work which is aimed at facilitating and promoting creative self expression by a group of people. The expression aims at advocating for cultural and political change within the society. Hoban (2000, p. 34) adds that the creation of community dance is communal and therefore they are not authored by individuals. This means that the outcome of a community dance is open. Even though the facilitator gives a thematic predetermination of a community dance, the dancers would create their own cultural expressive material (RF). It is therefore evident that the outcome of a community dance would deviate from the choreography of the artist who creates the dance leading to creative collaborative and expressive performance (Mulac, 2005, p. 88). It is in this regard that it is argued that community dance is unique as it challenges the conventional dances and performances and the associated aesthetics. More significantly is that community dance is powerful not because of the process rather by the product of the performance (Anand, 1997). Community dances involves moving and working together by the performing group. This allows different bodies, voices, experiences and experiences to merge towards a perfect and highly entertaining performance. Osborne (2011, p. 13) argues that it is through community dance that dance is appreciated. This is so because community dance is a form of dance which leads to the understanding of the ability of art making, dance aesthetics, what dance is, who can dance, the nature of pleasure and beauty and the most appropriate ways that the audience and the dancers would appreciate dance. Shah (2009) explains that for the achievement a desirable product of community dance, the community dance practitioners work and practice through dance projects, a series of meetings and workshops. This is opposed to conventional dance where pre-set dates for dancing and rehearsal periods are involved. Brinson (1993) reflects that in community dance, the boundaries between the audience and the dancers are fluid open. It is therefore through community dances that the excitement of dancing and performances are brought forth unto communities. The Big Dance 2012 is a wonderful experience where various groups of dancers with diverse dance performances and aesthetics and expressions were able to bring the dancing experience and excitement to the community. The communities dance practices prior and during the Big Dance performance involve setting up various dance projects (Amans, 2008). These projects are initiated by finding a group (Hughes-Freeland, 2008). The emergence of these groups comes from various communities such as school, college, institutional, organizational, company, government agency and societal communities (Shah, 2009). For example I was part of a school community from Malta where I was a leader of a group which was formed for ballet dancing during the Big Dance 2012. The group was found through an initiative of the active members of the ballet dance group. The motivation of the group members was very high and was focused at attaining a community type of dance which is based on the social inclusive theory. This means that the parents of the dancers and the society in general was involved in the dance through their encouragement and contribution on the cultural aspects that could be included in the dance to make it more explicit entertaining and breathtaking. After finding the ballet dance group, the dancing practice of introductory remarks on issues of access followed. The access issues which emanated within the group are the participation of parents, the community and the children dancers themselves within the ballet dance. The access issues were focused at ensuring that the dance was brought close to the community as possible. The access issues involved the three dance workshops which were formed within the group. Bennahum & Randall (2005) explain that community dances involve various workshops and projects through which the components of the dances are discussed, encouraged and thus included in the dance. The projects that I led within the ballet dance workshops was part of the school group that was to participate in the community dance by the demonstration of body expression in a manner that was inclusive, community focused and highly creative in all performances. The workshops within the community dance group were forums through which agendas, themes, aims and objectives were discussed and aligned to the main focus of achieving an inclusion theory within the performances of the ballet dance. These workshops also discussed issues of improvement during the regular meetings which I was mandated to coordinate. After the access issues were discussed and implemented within the dance group, the final community dance practice that we practiced was giving thoughts on the actual performance of the community dance. The performance of the group at the Big Dance 2012 was achieved through there major community ballet dances. These were the Sleeping Beauty Dance, Swan Lake and The Nutcracker. These three dances were given thoughts which demonstrated different thematic expressions. Nonetheless all of the three dances were community dances. More significantly the dances were achieved through the thoughts of the ballet dance which emanated from the parents of the children dancers in addition to ideas from the community members. Grau (2000) points out that the community dance practices are culminated by thoughts of community dance which should stem from the communal narratives, themes and thoughts especially from the culturally knowledgeable members of the society. To achieve the practices of community dances, the dance group which I led was motivated by the dance narratives which the parents provided to the children. These narratives covered the themes of the three dances which were performed during the Big Dance 2012. The social inclusive theory was practiced during the ballet dancing because the ballet dance was rebuilt by the dancers in order to match the narratives which the members of the society provided to the dancers. In this sense, the choreography which I led during the dances was rebuilt by the young ballet dancers during the performance for an enhanced inclusion of the community based narratives into the actual dance. Through the Sleeping Beauty Dance, the power of body language in community dance was expressed by the dancers. Bernstein (2002) explains that the performance of the community dance achieves its product only if the body language is able to reveal accurately the thematic and self expression that the dancers are presenting to the audience. Body language further enables the members of the community and the audience to feel that they are part of the dance by letting the dancers communicates the intended message through creative body movements. The Nutcracker presented the community with themes of cultural history, societal mobility and social hierarchies. On the other hand, the Swan Lake was perfectly performed by the ballet dancers which revealed the theme of personal space and how it relates to communal values. Berson (2005) affirms that community dance performances resent themes which have a lasting implication on the thematic beliefs of the society through the perfect self expression of the dancers via their bodily movements. During the Big Dance 2012 experience, the practice and theory of community dance was presented by various dance groups through their sensational performances. Community issues such as ideas of being elderly were specifically presented in significant and impactful manner. According to the postulates of (Mulac, 2005, p. 88), community dance plays a significant role in expressing social theory of aging with a view of presenting a reality of life to the audience. Pulver (2012, p. 52) exemplifies that the social theories within community dances helps the audience to think about issues such as the manner in which they would like to be treated once they get old. This is congruent to the inclusive theory where the community dance includes the elderly people of the community within the performances. It is through this inclusion that the thematic practice of community dances encourages among the members of the community the importance of participation in elder work and care as said by (Boen, 2007). In this regard the thematic forms of community dances are able to discuss matters related to loneliness, depression, institutionalization, and memory loss among the elderly and how these situations can be managed effectively. The Big Dance 2012 also revealed the practices of community dance through the social inclusion theory where matters of the disabled, children and youth were expressed through the performances of various groups of dancers. Significantly, the dancers within the performing groups were allowed to express themselves differently on issues of disability, children and the youth with an aim of attaining a final outcome of communicating the vital communal issues through dance. Riggs (2011) explains that the practice of community dance achieves a unified outcome through different expressions of various performers on maters which directly affect the community. Nonetheless Pulver (2012, p. 54) points out that the level at which different dancers moves the crowd during the communal dance varies. This was observed during the Big Dance 2012 where different dancers even within the same group played different roles in expressing their feelings on issues of youth, children and the disabled. The different performances when combined led to a greater impact of expression and outcome on the community among the audience. In this regard, the various members of the community who were involved or affected by the various issues which where thematically expressed in the dances felt as being part of the dance. Houston (2005, p. 166) presents illustrations of community dance projects which were aimed at empowering women within the society. These projects were organized by communal women groups within Malta where the projects that the women participated in within the community were motivated through entertainment and dance. Bauknecht (2012) says that community dances have played significant roles for a long time especially in empowering various groups within the community and making their lives better. The community dance within the women community in Malta for example is presented as being guided by specific values in the conduct of the women within the social, political and economic arenas. These values include courage and disciplines among women which help them to attain achieve various goals within the society. On the other hand Myers (2006, p. 71) illustrates community dances within Britain which were started among dance groups to empower the youth. These dance groups were guided by values within the postulates of their community dances such as artistic discovery, socialization, personal devilment and avoidance of drug use and crime. It is in the light of these arguments that it s evident that community dance plays a significant role in the empowerment of the members of the community within various social, institutional, economic or political groups. Therefore initiatives in community dance are encouraged within the contemporary societies. This is because of the significant role that community dance plays in entertaining, educating, empowering and promoting personal, group and societal development in the economic, social, political and educational scenarios. 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