In this seminar, we participated in a variety of activities relating to dance and its study. We learned everything from Tango to Swing to Contemporary, and in the process learned a great deal about how dance is analyzed, how it should be considered, different methods for consideration, and had a blast throughout the experience. We were also able to attend performances inside and outside of class, as dance is an embodied and ephemeral experience, and as such cannot be understood from a distance. For our final presentation, we divided into groups and were asked to choreograph short performances using the concepts and skills we gained over the course of the seminar.

 

My personal experiences with dance before this seminar had been few and far between, but the ones I have had are culturally connected to my ethnic and personal identities. For my final reflection, I created a brief zine summarizing these ideas in synthesis with images and artistic work that embodies my intersectional experience. In the zine, I write about Tango and Cumbia, two different social dances of Hispanic origin from which I draw connections to larger artistic identities of music and life connected to dance. These topics have also arisen in my artistic practice, especially related to photography and video, in parallel to my studies in this course.

 

My knowledge about the cultural origins of some dances (like Tango, Swing, Ballet, etc.) have expanded, but I think more importantly my understanding of how cultural appropriations have formed dance styles as we know them today has gained significant ground. I mention this in order to highlight how my understanding of cultural exchanges and the social, personal, and political connotations that follow them has really grown. For example, learning about the Carmen Miranda figure and being able to apply that knowledge to other classes (Latin American Studies) as well as other identity-based artistic endeavors – holistic education, my friends.

 

When it comes to examining identity, my disposition before this class would have been to primarily focus on colonizing groups and victims of colonization. However, cultural fusions, especially through dance and music, have not been that clean. Therefore, coming out of this seminar, I have been more inclined to view things in their complete complexity and go forward celebrating intersectionality.

 

Moving forward, I have become interested in the study of kinesthetic empathy, and the knowledge as well as the analytical tools to study dance and human movement I gained from this seminar will help me greatly in future artistic endeavors.