MOVEMENT: MY FREEDOM

Courtney Read
Dance 261: Freshman Seminar In Dance
November 21, 2016

Movement gives me freedom. Freedom from self and society. Freedom within mind and
body. Freedom: the pinnacle of American society. A topic so readily discussed and debated, but
how often are we able to truly feel free? For me, dance is freedom. It is the elevated pulse, the
breath that both fills and fuels my body, my instrument. It is the cool surface of the floor
supporting my exploration, begging me to risk, and catching me when I fall. It is total trust in
myself and my environment with the predisposition to accept the failures that will inevitably
come. Somehow, this danger feels like the safest place to be. My movement is limitless; it is
unique to me and capable of mending both the internal and external stresses of humanity. It is in
dancing that I find the freedom of art.
Dance, as defined by various professors at Brigham Young University in a talk back
following the performance of Dance: In Concert, is constituted by moving the body through
space with rhythm and purpose.1 It is art: space is a dancers canvas; rhythm acts as the paint
brush applying the vibrant color of movement. But unlike a painting, sculpture, or photograph,
dance is alive for a single momentexperienced, not captured.
By the microscopic tearing of muscle fibers, my muscles are strengthened. Physically, I
am more apt, more toned, and more capable by being a dancer. Outside the studio I push myself,
in running, weight lifting, and other aerobic activities to be able to perform optimally within
class and on stage. Within the studio, I am pushed in the technique of the movement. Fine motor
skills are a prerequisite to every nuance of movement. The demand to be in shape is paramount.
A healthy body is capable of far more expression, longevity and liveliness. What good is a guitar
with broken strings? What good is a dancer with energy so sparse and bones so frail that one
11. Nathan Balser, Janielle Christensen, Shayla Bott, and Curt Holman, BYU Dance: In

Concert Talk Back (address, BYU Dance In Concert, Brigham Young University, Provo,
September 15, 2016).

misplaced motion could end her art form, her outlet, her creation, and her lifestyle. I am healthy
so I can dance and live to the fullest capacity, so I can be a vessel for human connection.
There is a certain release, or exhale, of tension when performing breathy activities, which
explains why doctors recommend exercise as a cure for the illness of stress and depression. But
different than all other demanding tasks, dance provides this release and additionally an intimate
spiritual understanding of yourself. As a performer, I am exploring and re-exploring, discovering
and re-discovering every show the depth of methe depth of being alive. As an audience, we are
all able to connect and feel by simply having our eyes open and our minds keen to feeling. I
dance for this beautiful unity experienced nowhere else. In the words of the great Scott Russell
Sanders, All that [melody] or [movement] can do is gesture beyond themselves towards the
fleeting glory that stirs in our hearts. So I keep gesturing.2 So I keep dancing. I strengthen my
body and mind solely for the purpose of strengthening that connection.
Dance breaks through predetermined masks3 that each individual has cocooned for
himself consciously and subconsciously. These masks are not inherently bad, but just as with
anything, broadening ones mindset aids in empathy. An understanding of others can only help
heal the world of war, prejudice and pain. Dance may abstractly and indirectly insert an idea
below the surface of our pride and provide a pathway for hope, healing, understanding, and
forgivenessunity. Is that not the medicine the world is craving?

22.

Scott Russell Sanders, Beauty, EnviroArts, 1998, , accessed November 20, 2016,
http://magazine.nd.edu/news/33343-useless-beauty-a-canticle-for-the-cosmos/.

33. Mallika Sarabhai, "Dance to Change the World," Dance to Change the World | TED Talk |

TED.com, November 2009, , accessed November 21, 2016,

https://www.ted.com/talks/mallika_sarabhai.

Dance connects not only mind and body, but more importantly people. Conditioned upon
the willingness and humility of the dancers, a certain magnetism can bind the dancers together as
a single lethal unit. This physical energy is the source of so much power. Similar to the radiance
of a single match, providing limited light, still visible but minute, a selfish dancer can break this
magnetic moving energy and with it the power. When dance is about the unity with in the
dancers and the audience, that is a wildfire of light that has the action potential to change
humanity one soul at a time. Wordsworth, a renowned poet, put it in these terms: To me alone
there came a thought of grief: A timely utterance gave that thought relief, And I again am
strong.4 Dance is my timely utterance, and it is my goal to share and to strengthen
This unity is a gift. A gift which is both personal and shared. It helps me as the dancer.
Performing, or more simply just moving, helps me to cope with my inner battles. Audience
members are also strengthened and helped as they peak into a world outside their own. This I
take as my responsibility: to create the bond, to remove myself, and to focus on this bond with
my company members and radiate that to the audience. To be clean vessels5 is the necessary
means for achieving such a goal. Martha Graham stresses the importance of clearing ones plate
from clutter that your vessel may be clean and ready to learn and to give. Clutter may stem from
excessive pride or alternately simply a cluttered, overworked mind.

44. William Wordsworth, "536. Ode. Intimations of Immortality." 536. Ode. Intimations of

Immortality. William Wordsworth. The Oxford Book of English Verse, , accessed November 20.
2016, . http://www.bartleby.com/101/536.html.

55.

Martha Graham, "I Am a Dancer," I Am a Dancer, 1970, , accessed November 20, 2016,
http://pedc-journal.blogspot.com/2008/06/i-am-dancer.html.

As a Christian, I believe that my abilities to dance are of divine origin. I have the
responsibility to cultivate my talents and use them to share Gods love. Our birth is but a sleep
and a forgetting: The Soul that rises with us, our lifes Star But trailing clouds of glory do we
come From God, who is our home.6 I believe our bodies are a gift of Deity and dance is a tool in
which Deity can communicate with his children on earth beyond cultural and personal barriers.
God has given us bodies to be open canvases to create, and unite humanity on a more intimate
level.
God gave me the freedom of movement that I can share. As I serve with dance, that is
what when I feel most fulfilled and most empowered. Dance in and of itself is liberating, but
when combined with service, I am filled. Participating on every level elevates mental, emotional,
and physical functions of living. The power of freedom is boundless and the influence dance has:
limitless.

66. William Wordsworth, "536. Ode. Intimations of Immortality."

Bibliography

Balser, Nathan, Janielle Chistensen, Shayla Bott, Michael Goedel and Curt Holman. "BYU
Dance In Concert Talk Back." Address, BYU Dance In Concert, Brigham Young
University, Provo, UT, September 15, 2016.
Graham, Martha. "I Am a Dancer." I Am a Dancer. 1970. Accessed November 20, 2016.
http://pedc-journal.blogspot.com/2008/06/i-am-dancer.html.
Sanders, Scott Russell. "Beauty." EnviroArts. 1998. Accessed November 20, 2016.
http://magazine.nd.edu/news/33343-useless-beauty-a-canticle-for-the-cosmos/.
Sarabhai, Mallika. "Dance to Change the World." Dance to Change the World | TED Talk |
TED.com. November 2009. Accessed November 21, 2016.
https://www.ted.com/talks/mallika_sarabhai.
Wordsworth, William. "536. Ode. Intimations of Immortality." 536. Ode. Intimations of
Immortality. William Wordsworth. The Oxford Book of English Verse. Accessed
November 20, 2016. http://www.bartleby.com/101/536.html.