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thank you
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[Music]
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[Music]
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[Music]
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so now i will give my talk in my second
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language
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you see
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[Music]
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i'm someone who pretty much potable raid
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myself out of my mother's womb into this
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world
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so for me
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quite honestly dance is
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my first
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my truest
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and my most native tongue
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so i did consider just coming out here
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and for you all and dancing for about 15
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minutes
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taking a big o gracious bow and going
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any questions
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i mean
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i believe that elle woods's personal
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essay and legally blonde the musical was
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quite legit who wouldn't love to have a
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big musical production number with all
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the fancy lights and costume changes and
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dance moves be the way to just get your
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point across
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but you know barring a broadway budget
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here we are
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and so again
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i'll be talking with you
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in two languages
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as we revisit and uncover
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how and why it is important for us to
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rewrite the narrative
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around dance and dancing bodies
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civil rights advocate and founder of the
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children's defense fund marian wright
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edelman famously said
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if you want to change the world
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if you don't like the way the world you
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change is you change it
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you have an obligation to change it
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you just do it one step at a time
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now that's a really compelling quote and
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i imagine that many of us upon hearing
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it or reading it can feel a sense of
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inspiration to think about the various
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social movements and protests that we
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can join and what we can do in our
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day-to-day lives
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i feel that way too
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but let me be clear i continuously come
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to the last line
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you just do it
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one step
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at a time
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now now that you all know what my first
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language really is
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it should come as no surprise that when
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i encountered this line i immediately
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envisioned
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radical change sweeping the globe one
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flash mob one dance-off one dan cipher
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at a time
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i figured if we really wanted to
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fulfill our obligations to be agents for
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justice and equity and inclusion then we
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could do so
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a one dance step
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at a time
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one
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top rock
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one
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kickball change
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one
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back step
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one grapevine
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one orange justice
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one
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[Music]
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whoa
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at a time
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i mean
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think about it to be the change we want
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to see in the world all we really have
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to do is dance
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it
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out
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i mean who doesn't love a good dance
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party am i right or am i right
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well
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as it turns out
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some people don't enjoy a good dance
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party
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in fact
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merely mentioning the word dance as if
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someone has uttered a naughty
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five-letter word
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as anxiety and paralysis takes over
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those bodies why is this
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when
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post-modern dance pioneer anna halperin
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and musicologist kurt sachs have said
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that dance is the mother of all arts i
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mean i drink from that cup i am a dancer
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and a choreographer and a performer
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yet
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it is in the space of being an educator
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in k-12 settings both inside and outside
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of schools
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and even in ivy league classrooms where
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i have noticed this denial of said
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motherhood
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what is behind that
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and more importantly what does it mean
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in spaces of education
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where we might be
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unintentionally
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normalizing a disembodiment
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a disconnect from being in our bodies
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and realizing that they are with us
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every day
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taking in information
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so how can we rewrite this whole
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narrative on dance and the dancing body
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i propose
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or i offer i should say three on-ramps
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to reconsider how we can embrace the
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dancing body
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first let's revisit dance as a matter of
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anatomy now sure
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dance is cool and again we know that we
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in this room may like a good dance party
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but at its core dance is about
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anatomical bodies moving as they have
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the facility to do so
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celeste snober who is a dancer educator
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and scholar has said
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that we are creatures of turns and
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twists
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of expanse and contraction
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of gestures and postures
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although it feels as if western society
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has forgotten that we have hips
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don't think it's true
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take a little trip down memory lane with
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me to this oldie but goody from
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childhood
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you can sing along if you remember
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head
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shoulders knees and toes
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knees and toes
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head
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shoulders
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knees and toes
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don't mention any of the rest of this
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part of your body i suppose
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just stick to the head
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the shoulders the knees and the toes
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now it's a fun song to sing and it's
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okay to still sing it it's
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developmentally appropriate
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however
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let's reconsider what's happening by
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this benign erasure of acknowledging all
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the rest of the body parts
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in that silence comes in narratives that
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are problematic and oppressive
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hips
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i guarantee
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we all do have them
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but sometimes in some way
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it's been distorted to go oh hips only
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belong to girl bodies
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and if those bodies are moving that body
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part that way maybe that's not right and
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forms of dance that really embrace
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moving that body part that way really
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aren't dance they aren't high art
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we are dealing with the residue of
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colonized ways of thinking about bodies
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body parts
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and dance styles that were considered
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proper
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and appropriate
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i encounter this residue when i will
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sometimes show up to teach a workshop
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and teachers think that they have done
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me a favor by volunteering all of the
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boys out of the class
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i encounter the residue when simply
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doing a warm-up to let the hips do what
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they were designed to do which is tilt
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circle
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and even shake
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that students are snickering
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in embarrassment and astonishment that
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they have this body part and that it
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moves that way
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so what can we do here what's the
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opportunity
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well we can reclaim that narrative
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by teaching and embracing dance and body
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parts without necessarily gendering them
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without then saying some forms are
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better than others some bodies are meant
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to be moving and they're not
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you can do an experiment if you're
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feeling ready where you can take your
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hands and run them down the sides of
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your bodies and see if you find your
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hips
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i haven't met a person yet who hasn't
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found them
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i even venture to imagine that you
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probably all have that body part that
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exists between the top of your hamstring
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and your lower back
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that one
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also anatomically something we all have
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and it too can tilt
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and circle
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and shake so let's just revisit that we
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all have bodies that they are all
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designed to move and that we don't have
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to make it about anything else than that
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a second way that we can revisit and
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reclaim this narrative around the
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dancing body is to embrace the body as a
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vehicle of knowing and communicating
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martha graham says
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movement never lies
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it is a barometer telling the state of
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the souls whether to all who can read it
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so if we think about it this way the
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moving body is a means of navigating of
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communicating of understanding the world
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without and beyond words the body is a
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site of learning and processing
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yet
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how many classrooms are set up and
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designed this way
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we have
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heads
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and shoulders facing forward
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knees and toes tucked under desk
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this is what it looks like to learn this
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is what it looks like to be smart this
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is what it looks like to be a good
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student this is what it looks like to be
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good
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we are normalizing stillness
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normalizing silencing of bodies and all
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the access that they could have to
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powerful knowledge out of teaching and
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learning what about our students who
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rely on their bodies as their personal
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calculators their very own canvases
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their equivalence of a 10 page paper
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are we making room for that and teaching
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and learning
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we do have an opportunity here
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even in the design of our classrooms and
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the research is steadily emerging around
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how and why it's important to allow
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students to take agency and how they
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even sit or stand in class
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designing a room so that students have
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to kinesthetically meet each other and
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cooperate and build with each other who
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get to see that hey i see that you know
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what you're doing because i can see
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what you're doing
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so we have an opportunity to escape
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heads shoulders face forward knees
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tucked only under desk as means of
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learning
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to going hey body
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you're welcome here too
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and the last invitation that i'll make
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for us to reconsider dance
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is thinking about how it is a means for
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identity development and affirmation
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performer and dance historian brenda
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dickson got child says that
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dance is a message
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in a cultural envelope
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what does this mean
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this means that dance and moving bodies
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can serve as sort of a membership card
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a kinesthetic anthem if you will
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calling to it all those who seem to know
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in dna passed on through storytelling
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through dances and kitchens about who
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they are
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happens to me i've shown up at an event
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that often involves a yard
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a barbecue pit
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somebody on the turntables
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and i'm with people whose names i don't
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know
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i don't know what they do for a living
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and i'm not concerned about it but when
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that song comes on it's as if we
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remembered each other
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oh
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okay okay i see you
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hey
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all right here we go
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suddenly we all know what to do we are
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all able to be and to connect
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because movement
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and a shared expression of our
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identities
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have a space
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to say here we are
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we matter
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that cultural envelope is one that is
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full of stories
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that have been robbed from people robbed
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from bodies that did not get to exist
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bodies whose presence have been policed
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out
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so if we can consider
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that sometimes that student that just
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seems to always dance before and after
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and in between everything is trying to
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affirm for themselves that i am here and
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i'm looking for where my people are
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so you can see
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this matters
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this is not just the pitch for more
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dance education and dance classes though
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i am here for that
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but this is for us to remember that all
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of us whether students or educators
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whatever sandbox of influence or
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learning that we're in we have an
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opportunity to reclaim the narrative
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around this instrument that happens to
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be with us at all times anyway
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this new narrative isn't just about an
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invitation to a dance party though i
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would hope you all would throw those in
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rsvp to others
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but this new narrative is for us to
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remember
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to literally and figuratively stand up
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and stretch outside of comfort zones
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that have taken us uncomfortably out of
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our bodies
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and like literally right now let's stand
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up and stretch i'm a dancer i mean it on
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your feet
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i'm gonna count like a dancer which
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means i'm only gonna count to eight
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you've got eight counts to live your
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best life and your body here we go one
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two whatever you need three okay
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four uh
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five
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six
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five six seven eight and
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it's a narrative to remember yourself
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remember your body to your mind
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it's an invitation
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for all of my wiggling
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dancing movement moving students whose
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bodies have been other or police to say
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you matter i see you and how you learn
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it's a new narrative that will allow us
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to appreciate all forms of dance without
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hierarchy to dismantle tables that said
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this is the only canon that counts
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and to go all dance belongs at the table
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so that we can get rid of studying of
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world dance if we realize we all are the
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world and all forms should be at that
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table equally
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it's a narrative for us to remember that
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yes dance is about the joy
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and the release
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but it's also about deep connection
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communication
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interpretation and liberation
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it's an invitation for us to think
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perhaps we really can cause change
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one
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[Music]
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stanky leg step at a time
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or the step of your choice
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i mean as emma goldman says if i can't
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dance i don't want to be a part of your
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revolution
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so
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i invite you all
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to recount how many languages you speak
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and to add in the one that you've
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probably forgotten has been with you
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since day one
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it's your body and its movement
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please remember that language so that we
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can possibly have a flash mob
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that will change all of the world's ills
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i'm crazy enough to believe it's
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possible
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but it means we've got to remember the
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language of the moving body
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so let's get to talking
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thank you
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[Applause]
