Why Dance?

     When I first came to CPS nine years ago, I was fortunate to take over a dance program that had been started 22 years before by an incredible woman named Virginia Mathews. In her youth, Ginny danced with Margaret Jenkins, a S.F. dance icon, and also dedicated herself to developing a first rate dance program at CPS. During that same time I had been teaching in New England and later throughout the Bay Area in professional and public institutions. Each of us had a newborn, I my second, Ginny her third, and we were both ready for a dramatic change in lifestyles. Ginny wanted to move out of the Bay Area with her family and establish herself in a new way as an independent artist. I, on the other hand, was looking for an institution to become a home base so that I could consolidate my ideas and vision for teaching adolescents the joy of dance. Voila! Like magic, we were able to achieve our dreams by literally trading places.
    Eleven years later Ginny is living in Sebastopol with her family. She has firmly established herself as a viable artist and brought her incredible experience as a dancer to that fortunate community. I have been able to take the CPS dance community in new directions that include diversity and generally broadening the concept of what it means to dance.  Dancers are integrated into every strand of life at CPS including International Day, Grandfriends Day, Diversity Evening, Black History Month, Music Tour, collaborations within the art departments, and service learning in senior centers and elementary schools. We now have an advanced performing dance group called PDG that performs throughout the Bay Area. Last year, in our spring dance concert, we were able to involve over 65 CPS students in that performance alone!
     So, Why Dance?
If we start with “Why dance?” I would say because it is fun, relieves stress, and provides a balance to the academic life at CPS. Dancing enables you to be inside your body, to have a mind-body connection and to be present physically while you develop a healthy supple body that is both strong and flexible. (An example of an outside of body experience is an individual reading while working out on the treadmill. Sure everything is working, but are you aware of anything beyond the time?)
     Moving is the first thing we do to express life and the last thing we do before we die. I distinctly remember my feelings about dancing as a child. I felt so free, like I could fly! The gift of adolescence is that you are still close to those primal feelings. I am very fortunate as a teacher to be able to work with these lovely individuals called teens. I can share with them the intentional and intellectual movement called dance, and along the way we can be in the moment and have a great time.
But if we ask ””Why Dance?” then the answer is a much more profound one. 20th Century Modern Dance is an art form unique to American culture. Teaching this art enables me, as an educator, to pass on a vision of artistry that was started in the early 1900’s by pioneers like Isadora Duncan, Martha Graham, Katherine Dunham, Lester Horton, and Alvin Ailey (to name a few.)
          Isadora Duncan was one of the very early feminists. Modern Dance for her was about shedding the fantasy of Ballet as a dance form for the progressive social reality of the female body more in tune with the times. For her there were no toe shoes to bind the feet, or tutu’s to corset the body, but rather a combining of the natural and spiritual as a form of grace and femininity.
Martha Graham explored the human tragedy as expressed through the Classic Greek Plays, believing they were a reflection of the human condition that still exists today.
       Katherine Dunham combined American Modern Dance with Haitian dance and culture to broaden the contemporary concept of what dance could express. She alone created the field of Dance Anthropology.
Lester Horton formed the first inter-racial dance company in L.A. sixty years ago. This was a revolutionary concept for those times that still challenges us today. He was greatly influenced by Native American spirituality and ritual and was able to integrate this into his choreography.
  Alvin Ailey created a dance company dedicated to the celebration of African American heritage. He believed that an entire segment of our history was missing: the recording of a whole people’s contribution.
Each of these artists believed that dance, as an art form, should be held up as a mirror to reflect all of society. They believed that as a society we are no better than the art that we create, and that the medium of dance was the truest of all art forms to express this belief.
     My personal studies of Modern Dance have shaped my professional and personal life. As I’ve matured as an artist, a teacher and a parent, I’ve formed my own vision of what I want to pass on. I believe that to be truly human is to develop the physical, mental, spiritual and artistic self; I believe that in order to grow as people, we must give of ourselves to help the   greater community, and in my case to do it through the artistry of my dance.
     I am daily sobered by the harsh realities of our world where destruction seems to be such a powerful agent for change. I hold in my heart the hope that through my work and my art, I can affect young students to grow up to become ‘possibilitists’ themselves, individuals who believe in the possibility of a better world.
    Dance is an art form that can help to influence people to believe in what may be possible. I’ll continue to teach students about the dancers who had a vision for a better world and how they dedicated their lives to that vision. We’ll also draw strength and inspiration from the new generation of dancers who carry on. We’ll work inside our bodies creating even stronger connections between the mind, body, and soul.
I love teaching at CPS. It is, for me, the perfect union of autonomy and support. Every day I celebrate my good fortune to be in such a creative environment where my work is respected and I have the opportunity to work with such gifted students. No matter what project we’re working on, we always have a great time, because dance is, ultimately, fun. It just feels great to move, to dance!