Text by Kayley Palmer
In a digitally dominated world where everything can be saved and shared, where the same moment can be replayed and relived, the novelty of a strictly time and space existence is rare. Although every real life experience, conversation and encounter all exist exclusively in time and space, dance is built on an entirely different perspective of this idea. Dance – and performance in particular – is an attempt to repeatedly recreate an identical time and space existence.
There are countless children around the world who dance, have danced or are going to dance before they emerge from childhood. Although the aspiration to take the stage may not stay with them for the rest of their lives, dance has a lasting impact that will carry them as far as they roam.
As both a dancer and teacher, I have seen hundreds of others fall in and out of love with dance. Myself included. My relationship with dance is more turbulent and complex than any human connection I have ever formed. It is a conversation between the body and mind that manifests differently in every person who takes part. The way someone moves naturally – regardless of training – is a uniquely personal piece of themselves. Dance is often a sequence of familiar movements, which are the roots from which the flower of unfamiliar movement grows and blooms. Somehow, dancers never stop growing. Dance never stops blooming.
Daily, dancer’s delve doggedly deeper to find what they did not discover the day before, physically and mentally. There is little room to exist outside of the immediate space in which the body occupies. And it is this, that fosters digital disconnection.
Despite the role of social media in connecting dancers globally; the heart of dance truly lies in connecting with the people that surround you and share the same immediate air. Dance challenges the depth of our human connections, in a room full of strangers.
It is said ‘eyes are the window to the soul,’ thus there is an inability to engage an audience if not engaged with the audience. Unlike a conversation, the connection is unspoken.
The abstraction of ideas and the work which eventually makes it onto the stage – particularly in contemporary dance - is an invitation to peek into the humanity of the choreographer and artists on stage. Many minds, voices and bodies work in conjunction to collaborate. Eventuating in the presentation of carefully constructed products of refined collaboration - taking to the stage as an expression of a combined mentality.
Dance’s foundation in task work, often leaves dance struggling in thematic communication; but has no issues fostering self-discovery through its process.
It lays a path full of questions-
What reaction does this provoke in me?
How do I transform this thought into a movement?
How does this concept manifest in my body?
Where does this feeling originate?
Abstraction is intrinsic to dance, although it is often an introspective journey, comprehensible to those only, who walked the full path. Senseless to those who began their journey at the destination.
I dance for a youth company, focused on projecting a real and evocative portrayal of current teenage existence. Although a dance theatre company, the movement is not the focus of the work but a vehicle for human connection. Whether we dance with elation, anger, joy, sorrow, happiness, heartache, fear or any and every emotion between, the role of performance as an outlet is unparalleled.
We remind ourselves that as teenagers, we are all stuck in the same sea and battling similar storms. Those we don’t know are invisible to us as they continue struggling through their storms, despite our inability to see them. We can see our friends but are often so blinded by our own clouds, that sometimes we cannot even see those we know.
Youth dance can be used as such a poignant reminder that although we don’t always see other people’s storms; they exist. Storms the same as one’s we have already conquered. Storms the same as our own. Storms the same as ones we are yet to face.
However, dance is a journey with no destination, not even performance. It has no end point, no time for complacency to manifest, nowhere for vulnerability to hide. Vulnerability becomes visible. As if your soul is ripped out of your chest, put on show, under a spotlight. For every person to judge. A stage full of artists bearing their souls, capturing their audience as they battle their own storms and exploring battles they have yet to face. Suddenly the room is suffocating in emotionally charged energy where each and every soul is connected and can no longer hide.
As a whole dance not only transcends time, but also transcends humanity. Ironically, however, no dance experience will never escape the time it exists. No experience ever repeated, no matter how many repetitions exist within the existence of time. Dance’s relevance evades time. Truly.
There is not one person who has, does or will walk this earth who would not benefit from digging a little deeper into their mind. Or into the minds of others. A ticket not always to be moved, but always to be connected.
Delving into Dance, in partnership with Critical Path, invited those engaged in dance (in whatever capacity) to share thoughts as to why dance matters now… This text was produced as part of this partnership by Kayley Palmer. Kayley is in a youth company and also a teacher. Her instagram is @kayleydance
This initiative is supported by the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria and the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body. If you enjoy Delving into Dance please consider leaving a contribution. Contribute here.
