Dance+Editorial

Dancing is an art that is respected by people because it is seen as an elegant and beautiful way to express your feeling and tell a story. Essentially, dancing is a nonverbal way to communicate through rhythm and music. The way we see dance depends on the style we select. An elegant and powerful type of dance, ballet, is typically female dominant. Styles such as hip-hop are viewed as masculine, strong, and mainly for males. As a dancer, I would disagree with these assumptions in an instant. I participate in hip-hop, jazz, and ballet and never have I felt that any style of dance should be superior in any particular gender. James Brown said, " This is a man's world…but it wouldn't be nothing, nothing without a woman or a girl." Brown's quotation can be directly related to dance because dance isn't a matter of any gender dominating over the other in different types of dance. Dance is about finding a balance between males and females working together to create a harmony called the art of dance. In an article called "A Female Force," Victoria Looseleaf interviews women that have advanced themselves to becoming directors of dance companies and learns about their roles in comparison to those of males. She interviews Karen Kain, the artistic director of the National Ballet of Canada, who has worked under the company's founder, Celia Franca. Kain recalls Celia being "very tough and very nurturing at the same time." Alex Wong from “So You Think You Can Dance” disproves the belief of ballet being strictly feminine. Alex Wong auditioned for the show only having extensive training from a ballet company in Vancouver. He is a very strong ballet dancer and remains very masculine while doing so. Even though he does beautiful turns and leaps in the air, it remains masculine and resilient. While Alex remained further into the competition, one of the challenges was hip-hop. It was a big challenge for him to convert from ballet to hip-hop. He was eventually able to do so, resulting in one of the best performances ever seen on "So You Think You Can Dance." There is no "assigned" gender to any type of dance. Both genders should be able to participate in various types of dance with confidence and feel no inferiority. For example, I don't consider ballet movements feminine, but instead in demand of control and emotion. Dance was created for female and males to participate in and enjoy together. When dances involve both genders, it most likely results in something overall more beautiful and appealing than just one or the other. Beat Freaks, a dance crew that participated in "America's Best Dance Crew" is an all female group that made it into the finals of ABDC. Season three of "ABDC" evolved into a battle of the genders. The final round was between Beat Freaks, a female crew, and Quest Crew, a male crew. Many people were angry that Beat Freaks didn't win and would often resort to blame it on being biased due to gender. I voted for Quest Crew but I never took gender into consideration. Dancing shouldn't be about gender, but strictly about capability and endurance. In the article "Hip-Hop Dudes and Divas" by Lauren Kay, she states, " Dancing then was about the choreography, not about the dancer — so whether you were male or female didn't matter, what mattered was that you could execute the moves you were given." Dance should be all about the skill, capability, and persistence. Dance should not be related back to gender because if these assumptions about gender roles in dance continue, opinions will be set and the roles will never have a chance to change. Roles in dance are constantly changing and as the years go by, there is less of a border between male and female dancing. Currently dancing requires both types of movement and is a considered a skill once a person has mastered both. Hip-hop shouldn't be called "manly" and ballet shouldn't be considered strictly feminine, overall it's plainly dance. Dance is a difficult concept to grasp because it requires strength in movements from both genders but they must work together creating an art that is expressed through precise movements. Dance requires a strength that both males and females can achieve equally. Bibliography Kay, Lauren. "EBSCOhost." //EBSCO Publishing Service Selection Page//. June 2010. Web. 14 Apr. 2011. . Looseleaf, Victoria. "EBSCOhost." //EBSCO Publishing Service Selection Page//. Web. 13 Apr. 2011. .