The Flow of feelings with the melody
I experience listening to music as a flow of feeling. This flow is a response to the melody. It is this flow of feeling expressing the melody that is the subject of my dance. All the technique I have, which admittedly doesn’t amount to much, is used for that expression.
I think of the stories of how much Artie Shaw scorned dancers saying and I paraphrase, “They’d dance to windshield wipers.” I’ve seen dancers with that attitude. All they care about is their cool moves, their steps, they just use the music as a fancy metronome but their dance is just all about what they can do. My sympathy is with Artie. I’ve been a music lover all my life. I listen to music just about every day. And for some years now end up moving or dancing to it. I can go a very long time without watching dance or dancing socially. Music is much more important to me than dance. I’m not that interested in dance really except in that it can serve in my appreciation of music. For this reason I feel a bit of an outsider amongst social dancers, a bit of an imposter, and from time to time grow weary of dance.
This subject of how the technique of dance serves emotional expression interests me and yet I find it hard to find language to discuss it. There are some words that I use for qualities that I find most important in dancing. I have a feeling for what these words mean but can’t really define them. The word “rapport” I use for the resonant exchange of expressive meanings. I’ve no idea of why I have rapport with some people. It’s a little easier to be concrete about the lack of rapport. There is also question of whether or not I have rapport with the music.
I am circling in on issues I hope to understand better trying to find key elements and their relationship to each other. I think I’m hoping if I see this more clearly I can find more of that which I seek in dancing. I know what I seek. It’s just I don’t find it as often as I want it. I am frustrated by the ratio of mundane dance activity to transcendent dance experiences.
There is a cost satisfaction ratio involved. Is the time, money, effort, and frustrations I put into social dance worth the moments I value? Particularly when I could get very close to the same satisfaction listening to music I love or dancing to it alone. Though it’s true that when I experience the sharing of the music in the dance in rapport with a partner there is something about that that is particularly wonderful. That experience can be addictive in a sense and can be a variable reinforcement conditioning dance-seeking behavior. Should I extinguish this behavior or reinforce it?
I think of the stories of how much Artie Shaw scorned dancers saying and I paraphrase, “They’d dance to windshield wipers.” I’ve seen dancers with that attitude. All they care about is their cool moves, their steps, they just use the music as a fancy metronome but their dance is just all about what they can do. My sympathy is with Artie. I’ve been a music lover all my life. I listen to music just about every day. And for some years now end up moving or dancing to it. I can go a very long time without watching dance or dancing socially. Music is much more important to me than dance. I’m not that interested in dance really except in that it can serve in my appreciation of music. For this reason I feel a bit of an outsider amongst social dancers, a bit of an imposter, and from time to time grow weary of dance.
This subject of how the technique of dance serves emotional expression interests me and yet I find it hard to find language to discuss it. There are some words that I use for qualities that I find most important in dancing. I have a feeling for what these words mean but can’t really define them. The word “rapport” I use for the resonant exchange of expressive meanings. I’ve no idea of why I have rapport with some people. It’s a little easier to be concrete about the lack of rapport. There is also question of whether or not I have rapport with the music.
I am circling in on issues I hope to understand better trying to find key elements and their relationship to each other. I think I’m hoping if I see this more clearly I can find more of that which I seek in dancing. I know what I seek. It’s just I don’t find it as often as I want it. I am frustrated by the ratio of mundane dance activity to transcendent dance experiences.
There is a cost satisfaction ratio involved. Is the time, money, effort, and frustrations I put into social dance worth the moments I value? Particularly when I could get very close to the same satisfaction listening to music I love or dancing to it alone. Though it’s true that when I experience the sharing of the music in the dance in rapport with a partner there is something about that that is particularly wonderful. That experience can be addictive in a sense and can be a variable reinforcement conditioning dance-seeking behavior. Should I extinguish this behavior or reinforce it?
posted by obscure tango at 6:48 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home