explorations

Dancing “Makes Us More Alive”

New England offers numerous forms of dance for body, mind, and soul • by Nell Porter Brown

n primitive cultures throughout New York City dancers Karen the world, dance brings communities Amatrading and Christopher together in a common purpose, jazz Lockhart strut their stuff during a lecture by Wynton Marsalis at I master Wynton Marsalis, Ar.D. ’09, told Sanders Theatre. an audience packed into Sanders Theatre in September. Dances requested rain or a successful hunt or battle, opened paths to gods and other spirits, promoted fertil- ity and gender identity. They taught “our young the meaning of sexuality as they entered adulthood,” he said. “Dancing sanctified our space. It could heighten our sense of being alive by making us one with the very ground we danced on, the air we breathed, and the seen and the unseen.” Dance was, and is, a unique and essen- tial human activity that connects us to the musical rhythms of life. “Unlike rowing a boat or chopping wood,” Marsalis noted, in “dancing you became more of yourself as you became one with others. You almost never got tired because your spirit soared the more you danced—because this was play.” Proving that point, his four-and-a- half hour presentation on the history of social dance and music in America (part of his two-year lecture and performance se- ries sponsored by President Drew Faust’s office) was punctuated by dazzling perfor- mances, from the cakewalk, minuet, waltz, and fox trot to tap, tango, the Charleston, the lindy hop, the mashed potato, meren- gue, cha cha cha, and the twist.

This winter, as the cold isolates many New Englanders by chasing them indoors, dance might be just the form of exer- cise—for the mind and spirit as well as the body—needed to gain a fuller sense of well-being and connection to others. The region offers a wealth of dance stu- dios, classes, community groups, ethnic dance movements, and amateur perform- ing troupes to join (see the resource box on page 16L). Fitness gyms increasingly offer dance classes such as Zumba, bal-

16J November - December 2011 Photograph by Jon Chase/Harvard News Office New England Regional Section let, Nia (which combines dance, yoga, and martial arts), and even belly dancing, Dance Resources www.jehkulu.org/contact.html along with the more traditional workouts. Dance and drumming classes, perfor- “Hey—whatever gets people moving!” says Among the organizations that lead and/or mances, and festivals in and around Bur- Jill Johnson, the new director of the dance promote social dancing in New England: lington, Vermont program within Harvard’s Office for the Arts. http://www.havetodance.com www.facone.org (the Folk Arts Center Johnson knows that many people are A fairly comprehensive resource for re- of New England), www.folkdancing.org intimidated by dancing, which makes it gional swing dances. Also good contact (the Folk Dance Association), and www. hard to be comfortable as a beginner. She information for other dance forms, in- neffa.org (the New England Folk Festival encourages nonprofessional dancers not to cluding tango, hustle, and salsa Association), all offer details on interna- worry so much about how they look, but tional folk dancing and music venues. to concentrate on how they feel: dance is a www.salsaboston.com way to explore what of ourselves gets ex- Great for finding lessons, clubs, and per- www.earthdance.net pressed, and our relationship to others on formances. (See dance lessons section Earthdance, based near Northhampton, the dance floor. “We worry about how we for venues outside of Boston.) Massachusetts, offers classes, work- are perceived by others,” she adds. “People shops, and events with an emphasis on say, ‘I’m not a dancer’ and that shuts off www.arnb.org/Northeast.php dance and interdisciplinary somatic arts curiosity about it. We were born with the Cajun/Zydeco music and dance that “focus on sustainable living, social capacity to dance! Children who see some- justice, and community.” one playing music on the street will move http://wadabo.drupalgardens.com to connect with the beat. That instinct West African dance and music classes www.zumba.com/en-US/about gets lost because of who we think we are and events, primarily in Boston The trademarked dance fitness program supposed to be as adults.” She advises Zumba, performed to international mu- starting slowly. “Hip hop is very popular,” www.dne.org sic with a heavy Latin American sound she says. “Some of it involves complex co- Dance New England is an umbrella group ordination. Breaking down a phrase into that coordinates free-form dances. The www.niaboston.com smaller steps can sometimes help. Try not website also has an extensive list of other The site lists classes, teachers, and work- to look in the mirror too much.” kinds of dances to join. shops. Johnson trained classically through her teens, then was “opened creatively” by the variations of modern dance. Her choreographer William Forsythe. She is Harvard researchers to better understand work has blended the two—and other interested in “waking up the neural path- how dance affects brain activity and plas- dance forms—through intricate compo- ways” through dance and wants to engage ticity. Specifically, she would like to make sitions with her longtime collaborator, in interdisciplinary partnerships with clearer the connections related to the ef- fect of movement on and in the pre-frontal Dance Freedom in cortex of the brain and how the cognitive Cambridge draws a processes develop. “So much of the body is crowd for its free-style, barefoot boogies. patterning, which has helped me learn new things in the studio,” she explains. “Ap- proaching a certain step in a dance and trying to change it is like the process of re- covering from an injury. The pathways are re-patterning in healing and recovery the same way they are when we are learning new ways to move our bodies in dance.” In the classes she teaches, Johnson has her students warm up through “cross- hemisphere coordinative exercises”: swinging their bodies across their mid- lines by moving the right and left hands to opposite, specific points on the body (e.g., ankles, knees, elbows, ears). “The legs also move across the body in subtle opposition to the directions of the hands.

16L November - December 2011 Photographs by Jim Harrison New England Regional Section

David Kahn happily twirls the night away.

The whole body is moving, utilizing the configurations ofépaulement found in bal- let,” she explains. “To my knowledge, there isn’t any empirical research that suggests that this series of exercises helps coordination, but I have found—after ex- tensive use of this modality in my own dancing, and teaching students these pat- terning exercises over a length of time— that there is an increased coordinative ability as a result of practicing them.”

There is no doubt of the positive ef- fect, in general, of physical activity on the brain, on cognitive functioning, and on age-related problems, notes David Kahn, an instructor in psychiatry at Harvard Medical School whose research supports the development of a neuropsychology of dreaming. “But dancing adds another as- pect to exercise and its effect on our bod- ies and brains,” he says, “because it is a joy- ous activity.” Kahn is among the leaders of Dance New England (DNE; www.dne.org), “a creative collective of individuals who love to dance.” The nonprofit, all-volunteer group promotes dance’s ability to foster COMING NEXT ISSUE... authentic self-expression, tolerance, and community; it is the umbrella organization for numerous freestyle dances throughout POSTCARDS the region (and in New York City), as well as for an annual summer family camp in FROM Freedom, New Hampshire. Since 1976, Kahn has attended the Wednesday night gatherings in Harvard NEW Showcasing fun winter Square called Dance Freedom, which has getaway ideas for its origins in Dance Free, created by Alli- ENGLAND Harvard Magazine readers. son Binder and the dance and drumming circles first established on the Cambridge To advertise, contact Abby Williamson: [email protected]

Harvard Magazine 16M New England Regional Section

Common in the late 1960s. vian, and Scottish, along with Jill Johnson performs All DNE’s events are smoke-, during “The Art of events and performances. alcohol-, and drug-free. “If Survival: A Tenth “There are a lot of places you that stuff is available and al- Anniversary can learn to dance, like old Observance of 9/11 most expected, because that in Words, Music, church halls with fluorescent is the way nightclubs make and Dance” at lighting,” Snively says. “But their money, then why not Sanders Theatre. it doesn’t matter where you have another paradigm where are, because there is a lot of there is no alcohol and see energy in dance groups and what happens?” Kahn asks. you have a good time. Danc- DNE encourages the meeting ing is definitely a way to find of “authentic selves” in the a community. People want to dance. “People have said they share their culture and art need alcohol to loosen up, but forms, especially with young in my experience, all people people, and are very welcom- need is to hear the music and ing.” move their bodies. And this Great dancing is not about has been successful.” satisfying the ego—it is “an Dancing regularly and par- offering” of your gifts, John- ticipating in the DNE commu- son says. “If you are really di- nity has not only been good aled into the dance then you for Kahn’s physical health, cannot think about yourself; it has also complemented the energy and focus [present his work as a researcher. “At in that creative moment] are work,” he says, “I think by ar- too big. We think of that kind ticulating ideas that are part of thing as ‘New Agey,’ but if of trying to understand how you are open and accessible” and why we behave the way to merging the movement we do, while dancing uses a with the music and other different part of my brain. I dancers, then a new state of don’t have to understand why being surfaces. “I think it is I am dancing or how. There being in touch with the soul,” is no abstract thinking. The mind takes a I close my eyes and just feel it. You have Johnson explains. “These days we are so coffee break and the body has full rein.” to be aware enough to not pull too hard empirical; we want to know the how and On a recent cool, rainy evening, the on the others, or tangle up somehow, but why instead of having some mystery that Cambridge dance, held in a church fac- generally it’s possible to just melt into the defies words. In dance, ing the Common, drew about 30 people. sense of the group.” It was originally the you know the feeling Individuals, couples, or larger groups music (and her musician husband) that when you feel it, and Visit harvardmagazine. danced without prescribed steps, or drew her to this communal dance form be- therein lies the con- com/extras for a Q&A with OFA Dance simply stretched their bodies, to a wide cause the rhythms are not four-four as they nection” among body, Program director Jill range of predominantly instrumental mu- are in American contra dancing (which she mind, and spirit. Johnson. sic, including trance and electronic-style finds much less interesting); instead, they In his lecture, Mar- lounge sounds. Pretty much anything goes are variable, syncopated, “and intriguing,” salis said social partner dancing allowed “a at Dance Freedom. “Every dance I find she says. “Tango dancing is intriguing in glimpse into another soul, if only for a mo- some joy in,” Kahn says, “but every once the same way. You are moving to different ment, through the exuberance of motion.” in a while, like the other night, there is a rhythms and there is an ongoing curiosity He took a year to research the origins of meshing with another dancer and there is about how you fit into the music.” popular dance in preparation for the Sand- a chemistry that is like chocolate melting There are opportunities to learn and ers Theatre event. That work clarified, for in your mouth.” perform Balkan dances, such as through him, what social dancing has contributed Helen Snively ’71, of Cambridge, can find The East European Folklife Center (eefc. to culture. “It was competition, coopera- a similar experience in Balkan dancing, org), which runs a week-long summer tion, and consciousness,” he noted. Dance which she has done for 15 years. Done in camp in upstate New York that Snively “is and was and will always be community a group, with the dancers holding hands, attends. Many other groups in New Eng- in action. Although life is no cakewalk, Balkan dancing “is easy to relax into once land organize a similar range of folk and people are going to dance no matter what, you know the steps,” she says. “Sometimes ethnic dances, such as Greek, Scandina- because it makes us more alive.”

16N November - December 2011 Photograph by Jon Chase/Harvard News Office