I am going to put a lot of assumptions and opinions of what I’ve thought about dance (or “art” as in general) in this paragraph. I assumed every artist creates their work through their “instinct” and just do whatever they “feel” that they want to do without further consideration or political and social historical content behind, especially for dancing. Yes, I believe there is meaning behind the movements, but it is more like doing a certain moves to represent a specific object or story. I never dug into it and thought its inspiration could bee so profound, discussing the questions we will consider as “deep conversation” in our daily lives (such as gender or cultural appropriation). I believed any kind of dancing must have a certain principle and people have a standard of its aesthetics. Taking this course, my idea has been subverted.

From improvisational exercise we did with Mr. Ondrej and Professor Trajal, to the discussion with Professor Debra, my vision of knowledge have widen each day. I feel I am being intellectual (mainly) and physical challenge, which is wonderful since it’s been a long time that I did not feel I am actually “learning” in NYUAD.

I am an extrovert person that loves to create bonding and connections with other people. Rather than performing individually, I incline to do it with someone else but not losing the individuality while dancing. Among all these experiences, leader/follower practice is the one that always struck me the most. I still remember from the first day we were all afraid of closing our eyes and fully trust the person who led us. Now, the improvement have gradually shifted to a level that I could rely on my leader Ophelia with moving all parts of my body and adjust any direction/level (even with only one hand connection with each other). I also got the confident to lead my follower to believe my guiding but not losing his/her liberation on he/she wanted to do. Receiving the chance to sit aside and see what others do, the atmosphere of tension between partners have slowly faded away— more smiles appeared on people’s faces while doing the exercise. Furthermore, as the group size of leader/follower was enlarging, though I did not feel I received the same amount of freedom than the previous one, I could sense the concept of following and leading was blending away. Sometimes when it’s your turn, you did not acknowledge that immediately and decided to go with the flow of the group’s movement, which I considered this as a special bonding with them and making the overall movement more “as a whole.” And as the number of people has increased, it became more difficult to identify which one is the leader. While at the final stage when all class has merged into a group, it was really interesting to see people doing the same action without any communication about the leader.

I really love how this class’s goes, and I look forward to the classes next week— which we will have chance to see Professor Trajal’s rehearsal— and the trip to India.