How do you dance?

TENTH WEEK

04.30.2012

This post is more a reflective post on the attan dance we had the chance to learn more about last week and to practice. In continuing to do some background research on the dance, I hoped to learn more about the different settings in which the dance is used, how it is used, and what different movements are practiced. YouTube has been an excellent source of visuals from the past several years, and has a great array of different attan dances in various settings, some choreographed, some spontaneous, some celebratory, some in preparation for difficult war situations, some performed by women, some by men, some by both, some that use scarves as props, some that don't, some that take place to the beat of the tabla, some that are accompanied by song... the list can certainly continue at some length with each contributing an interesting element to the language of the attan. 

Attan dance (credit to artist "Somer" for the artwork)

My first thought was to post some samples of the different kinds of attan dances, but to select some simply wouldn't do the others justice! I urge you thus to take an adventure to www.YouTube.com and explore the diversity of dance yourselves. The picture to the right is an attempt to portray different elements of different attan dances.

My concluding thought on this post is this: Like any language, dance can be used in different ways and can be motivated with many different intentions. It is thus our universal responsibility as movers (every person moves in some way or another) to exercise consciousness in our movement choices and the way we use movement 

to communicate ourselves to others, and the subsequent impact we have on those we communicate with. Of course, this idea can extend to any type of communication or interpersonal relation, and I thus encourage you to think about how this might apply to both your movement choices (hand gestures, facial expressions, dances, etc.) and other aspects of the way you go about communicating with others (words, actions, thoughts, etc.). 

For example, you (and I!) might begin by thinking about one moment earlier today in which you (or I) shook hands with someone and how that person reacted. Did the strength of your handshake influence the way the other person saw you? Did he or she seem to draw a conclusion about your person based on that handshake? Maybe not. Similarly, we could begin by thinking about a moment in which we have felt particularly angry or frustrated with another person. How did we say the words that we used? Did the words we used with that person effectively get across what we hoped to say? Maybe, maybe not.

As always, I welcome your thoughts.