See What I Tell You To See
“Sometimes when you can't do anything else and you can't express how you feel, there's this lovely thing called dance. When it is seen, somehow the whole world understands.” this was the best answer I could give to the my mentor for my senior project when he asked me why I dance, what dance means to me and why I wanted to take on a dance piece for my senior project. I couldn't say that dance is a series of movements that that a choreographer carefully puts together to manipulate how the audience feels and thinks. Dance is exactly that, a three way relationship between choreographer, dancer and audience, but it goes so much deeper. Dance is a way for one or two people to take control on how everyone else in the room feels and thinks, but it is only possible because dance is a universal language. No matter where they are, who, or age, when an audience watches a dance they will understand.
There has to be a relationship between the dancers, choreographer, the audience. This is very easily manipulated by the change of music, sets, costumes, choice of auditorium and types of movement. When I was little and dressed in a bright yellow tutu doing a tap dance, the mood would have been cheery because the thoughts would be “awe, look at those little four year old kids, aren't they cute?”. Now when I tap, I understand how to control the mood. If I'm doing off beat tapping; I know I can express anger, confusion, and being hyper. On the other hand Broadway show tap is supposed to be more upbeat, happy and like nothing could rain on my parade. Think Gene Kelly in “Singing in the Rain”. Even in the pouring rain, he's dancing away and while watching it we somehow know he's just “singing in the rain” without a care in the world. As the lyrics even say in support of the dance: “I'm happy again, I'm laughing at the clouds. So dark above, the sun's in my heart and I'm ready for love.”
Gene Kelly needed to somehow get the audience enticed in his character and the story, it is the same with me and dance. As a dancer, I must have a relationship with the audience for the performance to work, if there is no relationship then there is no possible way to manipulate the thoughts and feelings of the audience. This is why being a dancer takes acting skills as well. The choreographer should explain how they want each dance feels to the audience. It is my job as the dancer to figure out how to express that feeling and thought. This emotion is supposed to come out of how I am portraying myself to the audience. The most common ways to portray an emotion to people is with facials meaning how I smile and how I use my eyes. If the choreographer asked for the mood to be soft, quiet and a little depressed, do you think I am going to have sparkles around my eyes and big white smile? Probably not. I would let down my choreographer and not have the audience's full attention.
As in most relationships, there's ways for this relationship to fail, usually it is if the idea is too broad or confusing or if I don't act well enough to draw the audience in. When I was sixteen I had to do a dance to “Bad Man” by Missy Elliot. The costume was black baggy sweatpants, black sweatshirt and white skate shoes. My teacher's exact words were “I want the audience to feel like you're going to jump off the stage and beat them up. So be aggressive and intimidating”. When I watch the video now, one of the girls has the biggest grin on her face I have ever seen. I get so distracted by her warm, chipper smile that I can't concentrate on the fact that the other dancers are pretty much asking for a fight. When I watch the video, I have to option to re-watch the dance and possibly find the real emotion being expressed. When someone is watching the actual performance, they have a one time shot. One dancer can ruin it all for the group and for the performance.
Dancers, though we find each other as competition, are supposed to be a team. We are supposed to feed off of each others' energy and mood. If this doesn't happen in the group, the audience will be able to see that in the performance. We try to grow to be a team before the performance so the chances of a failed relationship with the audience diminishes. I know as well as anyone that once those lights start to warm your face and you are standing on that stage waiting for the music to start, the anxiety builds which makes it very hard to express any emotion or thought other then “AH!”. Somehow the minute that music starts we are supposed to regain ourselves. The audience came for a show, they came to see the work the dancers put in, they came to be taken out of the every day world and put into the world the choreographer chose for them.
Most choreographers will choose a theme for their show, so it is easier to get thoughts across. I've been in Disney, Alvin and the Chipmunks, seasons, Charlie Brown, nursery rhymes and decade themes. Obviously none of these expressed the same feelings or made the audience think the same things. Even now, when I watch the Disney themed performance video, I remember being backstage watching and every dance made me think of the movie the song was from. I know there are some choreographers that do not choose a theme, I find it hard to connect to the show if it is just a jumbled mess of dances, music and costumes.
Fusion Dance, the last company I was in, never chose a theme, and it was very difficult to follow the show. The mood would change from upbeat and perky to soft and sleepy. The audience never got really into the show, they just watched. I knew the difference because I had been in a company that chose themes and the audience would feel like they were part of the show or at least, watching a movie. I could feel the failure as a dancer being in Fusion Dance when I heard the applause diminish. With my first company the clapping would continue till a few minutes after the final curtain hit the stage, after a Fusion Dance performance the clapping would stop a few seconds after the music. I would walk backstage, pack my stuff and feel like I didn't do my best. I felt like I had practiced twice a week for a hour and a half for the last nine months for nothing. In my opinion, this is the worst feeling a dancer can have.
After that feeling of failure for two years in a row, I was done dancing for Fusion Dance. I missed the connection of me and the audience. I didn't quit dancing, instead I took on the role of choreographer. I choreographed a ten minute dance piece as my senior project. I had to figure out everything: how I wanted the audience to feel, respond and think. I chose that I wanted to entertain and be humerus so the theme for my dance was “decades in a day”. I choose songs that were from the 80's to the current music on the radio. The costumes for my six dancers and myself were to be based on different decades. We practiced for about four or five months, and when we performed I was so excited. The audience clapped, laughed, sang along to the songs they knew and even danced in their seats. I knew my goal was accomplished.
After the performance and the final bow, I packed up my stuff and couldn't stop smiling. I thanked each one of my dancers and their parents for letting them be in my piece. While I was in the lobby of the auditorium, I had audience members coming up to me and congratulating me and telling me how much they loved my piece. One lady that worked for the school district even said “you best get into choreography as your profession, you'll really go places and meet some wonderful people”. I was so happy and touched that the connection was there for the audience because I had lost sleep while waiting for this performance. I was so stressed and worried that the music, costumes and dance was just too far out there to really have anyone connect to it.
Knowing that I am good at what I want to do as a profession was a great feeling. The feeling a dancer should have after a show: success. I love knowing that I can really entertain people, if not with my dancing then with my humor. I love locking people in, enticing them. Having the audience forget about the stress of everyday life, and just get into the story I'm expressing to them while I am on this stage.
Maybe making this relationship between dancer and audience is something not ever dancer has, maybe its a learned trait or maybe we're just born with it. I'm not really sure. All I know is I can't even express how it feels after that standing ovation from the audience because they understood. Dance is a universal language, everyone understands, it just has to have the meaning and feelings behind it.
