NDEO鈥檚 Guest Blog Series features posts written by our members about their experiences in the fields of dance and dance education. We continue this series with a post by Heather Harrington, Dance Faculty at Kean University. Guest posts reflect the experiences, opinions, and viewpoints of the author and are printed here with their permission. NDEO does not endorse any business, product, or service mentioned in guest blog posts. If you are interested in learning more about the guest blogger program or submitting an article for consideration, please click here.
The first time I heard a student of mine refer to dance as 鈥�the industry鈥� was in 2015. Maybe she saw me physically recoil before saying, 鈥渘ot all dance falls under the category of industry.鈥� My recoil was rooted in my reluctance to see the pursuit of dance as 鈥渁 manufacturing activity or a distinct group of productive or profit-making enterprises鈥� (Merriam-Webster). During feedback sessions in my composition classes, as I began to hear more often, 鈥渢he dance was entertaining.鈥� I would probe, 鈥淲as it crucial that a piece be entertaining?鈥�
Martha Graham proclaimed that she 鈥渟howed onstage what most people came to the theater to avoid" (Graham 1991). She was not afraid of revealing facets of the human condition that might not be deemed enjoyable or expected. Graham was pushing back against the vaudeville entertainment that was popular at the time, offering female dancers an alternative to being an object of desire or enjoyment. Are current dancers being steered towards giving audiences what they expect鈥� reluctant to step outside of the boundaries of 鈥済ood dance鈥� because they risk not doing well in the industry?
In my paper, 鈥淐onsumer dance identity: the intersection between competition dance, televised dance shows and social media,鈥� I ask: 鈥淗ow do dancers see themselves? As bodies eager to please the virtual world of subscribers and followers, the judges, the industries that sell products, and the American public that wants to see the ultimate in emotion and physicality?鈥� (2020).
Life can be measured in followers, likes, subscribers, scores, even posts on a deceased friend鈥檚 Facebook memorial page can garner points as a top contributor earning a badge and words of encouragement, 鈥淜eep up the great work.鈥� In a dance competition, you are a number, you receive a number as your score, you perform a number with specific time limits, and you pay for the opportunity to compete.
Maybe there can be a space to escape numbers and measurement; where growth, expression, and development are valued. The word 鈥渋ndustry鈥� does not evoke such a space.
With the influence of competition dance, which my student from 2015 was involved with, the framing of dance is through a commercial lens, facilitating the joining of the words 鈥渋ndustry鈥� and 鈥渄ance.鈥� Language is a web of meanings and associations; many cognitive psychologists believe that word choice affects thought and behavior (Bryan et al. 2014, Gu茅guen et al. 2011).
Looking deeper into what defines the kind of work found in commercial dance, one might find movement that populates music videos, award shows, cruise ships, music concert stages, amusement parks, films, Las Vegas residencies, and cheer teams at halftime shows. Commercial dance is not new, think back to vaudeville, Ziegfeld Follies, Tiller Girls (the precursor of the Rockettes first formed in 1889) and the heyday of the Busby Berkley (1895- 1976) films with 鈥渆laborate dancing-girl extravaganzas鈥� (Barson 2023). "Auditions for the Tiller Girls did not include actual dancing, but instead consisted of a thorough inspection of each candidate's teeth and legs鈥� (Reilly 2013, 119). The world of the entertainment industry is the world of the competition dance circuit run by corporations. Most young people studying dance in 2023 will have some exposure or be involved with the competition circuit (Schupp 2019).
If dance educators refer to dance as an industry, how are young people being taught to see their bodies? Dance is not dependent on piano keys, clay, or paper; the body is the source and the language of dance. A dancer cannot disconnect their body from their personhood. With the use of industry in relation to dance, the body and the dance become commodities opening the door for a disconnect; a body to be mastered that must fall in line with the normative aesthetic of the moment. If a dancer is injured or if a movement is moving the joint beyond the normal range of movement consistently, the health and integrity of the body is not respected, only the ability to produce. Karl Marx (1844) stated 鈥渢he better formed his product, the more deformed becomes the worker.鈥� Feeling movement and listening to the body is not valued.
I acknowledge that forms of dance which might be revered as 鈥渁rt鈥� such as ballet, modern, and contemporary dance can also fall into the same traps of creating standard body types and movement styles, producing similar disconnects between the body and the person. I am not elevating these manifestations, but I am elevating the idea that dance can be a union of body and mind that can express, question, challenge, and disrupt. When a foundation of commercialism is laid down, there is no time to explore, create, and breathe because production, money, and replication are necessary in consumerism. In a world of industry, 鈥渙nly the end result, not the process, is valued. In this product-driven push, self-discovery, experimentation, ownership, and creativity is lost鈥� (Harrington 2020).
Dance can access the interiority of feelings buried, transcend the mundane鈥� delving into what makes a person鈥檚 life mean something beyond the material. Dance can create new choreography; taking risks, resisting and disrupting norms, and going into the unknown. The many trajectories of dance should not be reduced to one; consumerism. With the use of 鈥渋ndustry,鈥� dance loses its status as an artistic pursuit鈥� the objective is defined and narrowed. Being misunderstood or challenging the status quo is not welcomed in consumerism 鈥� to be profitable is to be safe. As dance educators, let鈥檚 not narrow and pin down dance, but open the practice of dance to its many manifestations. My friend always signs her emails, 鈥渒eep dancing.鈥� I think she means, keep moving through life with your unique voice. I want to encourage every body to dance for the sake of dancing.
鈥� go into the arts鈥hey are a very human way of making life more bearable. Practicing an art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow鈥�
鈥� Kurt Vonnegut, A Man Without a Country
References
Barson, Michael. "Busby Berkeley". Encyclopedia Britannica, 10 Mar. 2023, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Busby-Berkeley. Accessed 9 June 2023.
Bryan, Christopher J., Master, Allison and Walton, Gregory M. 2014. "Helping" Versus "Being a Helper": Invoking the Self to Increase Helping in Young Children.鈥� Child Development. 85: 1836- 1842.
Graham, Martha. 1991. Blood Memory, An Autobiography. New York: Doubleday.
Gu茅guen, Nicholas and Lamy, Lubomir. 2011. 鈥淭he Effect of the Word "Love" on Compliance to a Request for Humanitarian Aid: An Evaluation in a Field Setting.鈥� Social Influence. 6: 249- 258.
Heather Harrington. 2020. 鈥淐onsumer dance identity: the intersection between competition dance, televised dance shows and social media.鈥� Research in Dance Education, 21:2, 169-187, DOI: 10.1080/14647893.2020.1798394
Marx, K. 1844. 鈥淓stranged Labour.鈥� Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844 69鈥�80.https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1844/manuscripts/labour.htm#:~:text=External%20labor%2C%20labor%20in%20which,to%20himself%2C%20but%20to%20another.
Reilly, K. 2013. 鈥淭he Tiller Girls: Mass Ornament and Modern Girl.鈥� In: Reilly, K. (eds) Theatre, Performance and Analogue Technology. Palgrave Studies in Performance and Technology. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137319678_7
Schupp, K. 2019. 鈥淒ance Competition Culture and Commercial Dance.鈥� Journal of Dance Education 19 (2): 58鈥�67. doi:10.1080/15290824.2018.1437622.
Heather Harrington danced with Doris Humphrey Repertory Company, Martha Graham Ensemble, Pearl Lang Dance Theater, and Bella Lewitzky Dance Company. She created her own contemporary dance company in New York City performing nationally and internationally. Being drawn to movement in the public space inspired her to create site-specific work, either on the steps of the Federal Hall Memorial on Wall Street, NYC, or at a park in Newark, NJ. Her interest in dance in the MENA region, has led to teaching and choreographing in Tunisia and Lebanon. Her artistic and scholarly collaboration with Lebanese dance artist and professor Nadra Assaf has led to performances, articles, and conferences across the globe, creating work that speaks against the violence that hauntingly remains embodied in women. She has been on faculty at Kean University, Seton Hall University, and Drew University. She received her MFA from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and her BA in psychology from Boston University. Her scholarship examining gender and dance, dance as protest, consumer dance, and the choreographic process has been published by Choreographic Practices, Dancer Citizen, Research in Dance Education, Dance Research Journal, Nordic Journal of Dance, Journal of Dance Education, Beauty Demands, and Dance Education in Practice.
Photo Credits (from top to bottom): Mortadha Ghannouchi, Britt Sarah, Nan Melville, Jamie Meier