Blogpost 1 : Dance to Express

Dancing is the action or movement of body in the flow of music, or even without music. It is one way of practicing your motions, your smoothness in moving your body. Dancing cannot always be for showcase purposes but as a lifestyle as well. Other people dance to show off, others just dance to develop and other just dance to EXPRESS.

In one of our dance trainings, our coach asked us to just lie down and close our eyes. He played music and asked us to listen deeply and let everything out through dancing. While I was listening, I felt a sudden burst deep inside. I started to move with my hands, my head, my upper body, and my legs. I didn’t care of how I look when I’m dancing. I just let it all out. Surprisingly, I’m not the only one who was carried away by the song. After the dance, my co-dancer was seen by my coach crying while he was dancing. Our coach asked him why he cried. My co-dancer just told us that he is going through a problem right now, and the song really carried him out from his problem. It’s like dancing pulls us up especially when you listen to it deeply.

I found this article entitled “Dance and Self-Expression” in survivinggrief. This article focuses on how dance is expressed through different perspectives. It is not only expressed through your emotions but it is also used for rituals or ceremonies. This author provided some ways on how to establish a self expressive dance.

According to Sandy Fox, “Dance is a great way of tapping into deep emotions and connecting with yourself after loss. When I talk about dance I don't mean the kind of dancing you do on a night out with friends in a club but rather solo dancing to allow self expression. It's very hard to let yourself get caught up in music and dance with abandon to it when there are others around.”

I truly agree with the author’s statement on how dance cracks you in your shell and just letting it out through dance. But her idea of dancing to express is very hard when there are others around didn’t quite seem true to me. As a dancer, when you want to listen deeply and let your body move out, let go with everything, you don’t care who or how many are watching you. We don’t care about their judgment, their criticism. But we care that they comprehended what your dance is trying to say.

There’s another article entitled “Dance as Expression” in griercooper. I really admire what she stated in the last part.  “We all need healthy ways to deal with intense emotions, and dance is a potent alternative to hitting a pillow or yelling from the peak of the nearest hillside. Humans are emotional creatures, which is both our greatest blessing and our largest challenge. Having the proper tools to ride those powerful currents can help make the ride a whole lot more fun.”

All of us wants to deal with sudden emotions and didn't figure out how to get out of it. Not just dancers but everyone can dance to express. Just find time with yourself. Play out a music that best suits your emotion or mood. Play it loudly. Close your eyes and listen deeply. Let go. You’ll never know that you are already up on your feet – dancing.