By: Alison Gerardot
I think I finally get it. I think I understand why our community embraces competitive dance so much.
This past weekend I attended a local dance competition. I haven’t done this in quite some time. I’m exhausted. To all of my friends out there who do this numerous weekends in a row, props to you. I don’t know how you do it.
I came up with this conclusion: this subculture of dance competition, is comfortable. It’s dance as a sport. Not necessarily dance as an art. Think about it, what other art forms compete each other in order to win (on a regular basis)? Visual artists don’t have an “art off”; actors don’t have an “act off”, so why then do dancers have regular “dance offs”? Are we that narcissistic that we need validation ALL of the time to see where stand against our peers? As a dancer/choreographer myself, I feel offended at even the thought of that idea. So why then, is competition so important in our culture?
The idea of dance as a sport is very reassuring. We know what to expect in sports. Someone wins. Someone loses. There are life lessons learned. We work together as a team and we accomplish something. It’s black and white (and beneficial life lessons are learned). The idea of dance as art…well…that’s a little bit foggy. Because in art there isn’t necessarily something that can easily be identified as the “best” or the “winner” because personal taste and preference win out. What I love might not be what the next person loves and so on and so forth. There’s lots of grey area in art. And that can be….scary, and uncertain, and it definitely doesn’t give you instant gratification, like winning a trophy.
Now don’t get me wrong. I appreciate what these dancers, dance teachers and choreographers do. Even if it’s not my favorite, I still very much appreciate the hours that these dancers and teachers spend in class, their hard work and the effort they put into the pieces they compete. Because I’ve been there and done that. And some of the choreography can be brilliant. And some of the dancers can be top notch amazing. I don’t want to dismiss any of that. But the button I do want to push is the one that makes people in our community, even just a few, question the competitive nature of what we’ve done to dance the ART form. And maybe even go see some dance just for arts sake. And appreciate it. Even if they don’t like it.