What is dance to you?

What is dance to you? Do you enjoy dancing and why? or do you hate it why?

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Submitted by: Louis | 3 comments  VIEW COMMENTS

hello Peepholes.

I have just finished doing a four week dance workshop called 'I feel like dancin' at PACT theatre in Erskinville in Sydneys inner west with choreographer Julie-Anne Long and I just wanted to share my experience.

I use to be a dancer. I began ballet at the age of 9 after being inspired by Paul Mercurio in Strictly Ballroom. I did it right up until my late teens where I reached a point where I could pursue it as a career and I gave it up. Recently I have got back into performance and dance as such and I signed up to this workshop expecting most people to have had some form of formal dance training and was pleasantly surprised to find that I was one of a handful of people that had attended dance classes. We explored what dance meant to each of us and I was surprised to find that alot of people viewed it quite negatively mainly due to bad experiences in childhood. This made me think that maybe this goes alot deeper.

I believe that dance has alot of bad stigmas attached and It frustrates me because I think that anyone can enjoy dance just like people enjoy music. I know as a child and teenager and being a male that if you are a guy and dance you must be a poof or a woose or have something wrong with you. This puzzled me as a teenager because I was the one dancing with all these gorgeous girls and the ones teasing me were running out onto a field to hug and grope other guys.

Anyway I have always had too much confidence for my own good so it has never really been an issue for me but by doing this workshop and hearing other peoples experiences I think that their maybe many people out there afraid to take to dancefloor and bust theirs moves because they are afraid of being viewed as a poof or just as a bad dancer. It was really beautiful seeing people during this workshop dancing 'their way' and enjoying themselves so much and being proud of what they had created and achieved. Im not saying there aren't people that go out and dance Im sure there are. But I think there might be alot of people out there afraid to dance and that upsets me because i know how much people can enjoy dance.

Anyway Im interested in what you think?

Thanks for your time
Louis
Discuss Now 3 comments

Kelly Simpson 11-Feb-2008

I love dancing, even if I do frequently run people off the dancefloor with my good friends vodka and redbull.
I think that dance is an important space where you're able to let go and truly be yourself. I've never had dance lessons, but I'm a big fan of losing yourself in the music, screaming your lungs out in time with the singer, as if it were the only thing that mattered to you at the time, because it is.
I know that this isn't a particular answer to your question, Louis, but I think that as Australia is becoming a bit more dance-friendly (So You Think You Can Dance, Rave culture, etc), there will be less of a stigma to males dancing.
A hundred years ago, women couldn't even wear pants. Now we wear the pants, hahah.

misshannah 03-Aug-2006


Louis ,
thanks for your story! Dancing is indeed a wonderful art form and so should not be reserved for the co-ordinated. I have done a couple of dance related things and always find it liberating. Dance gets people to let go of inhibitions and enjoy being in their bodies.... I hope your story inspires people to take the risk.
Hannah

Amy 03-Aug-2006

Thats a great story louis. I was just wondering if I wanted to do something like you did at PACT where could I go? It sounds like a good way to get into the arty community.