Danielle Vargas
10 October 2014
Literacy Narrative All of my life I’ve been a dancer. I’ve been taught specific moves and motions that come with fancy French names and a rich history behind it all. The saying, “actions speak louder than words” can be applicable to dance and the movements coinciding them. I say that because when I was about 12 years old I was promoted to the third highest dance level at my studio. My dance studio was all about creating dancers that were well-rounded young ladies who were not only graceful dancers but also classy young ladies. My first advanced dance class we were given a homework assignment. The assignment was to pick one of our combinations that we did in class and write it down without using the formal names of the movements. Initially I was confused because I wasn’t used to having homework for a dance class but also the assignment seemed so difficult. My body and brain have been trained to process these movements and think of it in a straightforward way and the assignment seemed to derail that train of thought. So I went home and sat with a piece of paper and pen in my hand. I picked my favorite barre exercise and began going through the motions of the combinations in my head. I had to keep in mind that I couldn’t use the actual term of the movement and had to communicate the combination by using smaller words like, “brush of the leg” or “toe taps.” I worked hard on the assignment for my first advanced dance class. I was proud of what I had come up with and was ready to show my teacher and my class. The next time the class met up we all shared our different renditions of how we translated our difference dance combinations. It was interesting seeing how the different girls came about the assignment. After hearing all of the dancers take on te combinations it seemed like we were suddenly all doing different combinations even though they were the same. Every girl had a different set of aesthetics and it was clear by seeing her point of view in her homework assignment.
This forced us to critically think about the movement we were doing and then re-name it with something we were more familiar with. Not only did we have to write it down but we also had to verbally communicate it to the rest of the class. All the girls had to vote on whether we knew what combination she was talking about depending on their description. Being apart of the advanced dance level for a few days I was already challenging myself as a dancer and now I am realizing that I challenged myself as a writer and a communicator. Weeks following we had periodic assignments where we had to do the same thing but it got harder where we had to translate moves that didn’t even have an official term to them and write about them. That specific assignment was very challenging because I had to turn a movement and abstract idea into something more literal that made sense to me and other people. Assignments like this were simple yet complex but expanded the way I looked at dance, communicated with people, and even how I wrote. Because of that I became a better dancer because not only were certain dance combinations embedded in my muscle memory but also my mind was able to fully grasp the idea of what I was doing. My teacher was able to see that through going to dance classes and doing the homework assignments I was flourishing in her class. And to reward me she gave me a solo for our upcoming dance concert. It was a satisfying achievement to have and I was also so young compared to the older dancers. As I began to learn the solo there was a specific sequence of movements that I just wasn’t getting. My teacher saw me struggling with it and tried to help me. She told me to go home and go through the movements and just like the other homework assignments write down the movements in anyway format I wanted. She wanted me to memorize that list and then say the list out loud as I danced. I was little bit embarrassed to talk and dance at the same time because I mean I wasn’t really trained for that. The first time was rough because I was thinking too much and it didn’t come natural. But with time progressing I was able to nail the sequence thanks to the fact that I had to have a deeper understanding of it and translate it in my own terms. As I grew older and matured in my dance career, I was offered a teaching job at my studio to teach the pre-school dance students. Nervousness and doubt was beyond me because I felt incapable to teach little girls how to dance when I was still learning myself. I had an important job of building a solid foundation for these dancers. But what I had realized was that I learned about communication through and in dance. Taking an abstract concept and turning that into something more literal was going to be crucial as I began teaching.
Because of those assignments, the teaching job that I was nervous for didn’t seem as bad. Most dancers aren’t used to talking about their movements but more about doing it. I developed a skill set that is unique to a dancer and being able to translate something that can’t always be translated is difficult. I’m fortunate enough to have to go through that experience where my communication skills developed. I can apply these skills not only furthermore in my dance career but even my writing career, which hopefully could lead to more academic and writing success. Critically thinking about a simple gesture and making it more literal or even abstract can equal a sense of words and could even lead to a conversation.