African dance # 5
Last African dance class tonight. I haven't done yoga in a week and a half--I had a cold earlier this week, plus I had the late night with Bon Jovi, so I've been sleeping in all week and completely skipping my morning workout program. It felt so good to get moving again, and now I feel all inspired to get up early for yoga tomorrow morning. I have to say, I really enjoyed African dance. It would not be my first choice as a means of artistic expression for myself, but I would absolutely take an African dance class again because it's an amazing workout and just a lot of fun.
I was thinking about African dance as a form as being so different from my experience with flamenco. African feels like a very community-oriented form, with movements representing giving (giving respect, of yourself, whatever) to the earth and the community, and we were encouraged to look at each other, make eye contact, mingle about mid-dance, dance in a circle, all of which fostered a nice connection among the class. We were chatting and laughing all along. By contrast, flamenco felt like we were several individuals who all happened to be dancing in the same room. We didn't look at each other or communicate with each other at all, to the point where I didn't know the names of several women in the class even after six weeks. (They're Susan and Mary, I found out later.) There were times in flamenco where we practiced a series of steps while staring into our own eyes in the mirror. In African we never used the mirrors at all and in fact did not even face the mirrors while we danced. Flamenco felt very much about personal, individual, even private expression, while African was about communal experience and sharing and expressing together. Very, very different forms, but something incredibly appealing about both of them.
I guess I've always had a concept of myself as being more of a loner--going back to all those childhood hours spent by myself, with a book or playing alone. I've always felt I'm more an introvert than an extrovert. But if I were to choose between the two dance forms, I'd take African again in a heartbeat, and would think harder about doing flamenco again. Part of that is how different the two forms feel in the body--African is an exhilerating workout, while flamenco is just kind of exhausting--but part of it is also that communal aspect. If I'm dancing, I want to be having fun. I get anger and passion and fire in my writing, I guess, so I'm less passionate about finding that in my dance? But I do think flamenco is beautiful. Flamenco also felt more like work, while African felt like a party. An organized party, but a party nonetheless.
This year of dancing has definitely introduced me to some different forms and concepts that I never would have imagined. I'll be interested to see how I feel after taking Chinese folk dance, and which form will ultimately be my favorite of this year.
I was thinking about African dance as a form as being so different from my experience with flamenco. African feels like a very community-oriented form, with movements representing giving (giving respect, of yourself, whatever) to the earth and the community, and we were encouraged to look at each other, make eye contact, mingle about mid-dance, dance in a circle, all of which fostered a nice connection among the class. We were chatting and laughing all along. By contrast, flamenco felt like we were several individuals who all happened to be dancing in the same room. We didn't look at each other or communicate with each other at all, to the point where I didn't know the names of several women in the class even after six weeks. (They're Susan and Mary, I found out later.) There were times in flamenco where we practiced a series of steps while staring into our own eyes in the mirror. In African we never used the mirrors at all and in fact did not even face the mirrors while we danced. Flamenco felt very much about personal, individual, even private expression, while African was about communal experience and sharing and expressing together. Very, very different forms, but something incredibly appealing about both of them.
I guess I've always had a concept of myself as being more of a loner--going back to all those childhood hours spent by myself, with a book or playing alone. I've always felt I'm more an introvert than an extrovert. But if I were to choose between the two dance forms, I'd take African again in a heartbeat, and would think harder about doing flamenco again. Part of that is how different the two forms feel in the body--African is an exhilerating workout, while flamenco is just kind of exhausting--but part of it is also that communal aspect. If I'm dancing, I want to be having fun. I get anger and passion and fire in my writing, I guess, so I'm less passionate about finding that in my dance? But I do think flamenco is beautiful. Flamenco also felt more like work, while African felt like a party. An organized party, but a party nonetheless.
This year of dancing has definitely introduced me to some different forms and concepts that I never would have imagined. I'll be interested to see how I feel after taking Chinese folk dance, and which form will ultimately be my favorite of this year.