Pegge Vissicaro says, Dance creates a bridge for traversing cultural borders because

fundamentally it involves the human body, something that all people have in common. And
because we have different cultures, we have created different variations of dance; although,
patterns and movements are more or less the same, because with movement we have the same
limiting factor, our own human bodies. As our cultures change, so does dance, because dance is a
reflection of culture. For the purpose of understanding more about culture through dance and
movement, our class had a dance class activity at the Anthropology Museum.
The first part of the class activity was basic ballet. We observed our partners go through
some stretches first, then they practiced plie, next a sequence of positions involving ecarte,
tendu, and other terms that I cannot pronounce much less spell; then they ended with ballet walk.
Ballet is a strict dance. It involves a lot of discipline, and a lot of rules. All throughout the
dance, a fixed tempo was maintained. All the moves were performed in counts of eight, giving
the dance a rhythmic quality. It looked difficult, if only because you must be very coordinated
and in control of your body parts; knees must be straight at all times, hands must be perfectly
round. At any given time, each part of your body must be in a certain position, i.e. butt and
stomach tucked, hips maintained, hand at bar, toes en pointe. Every movement is precise, even
done segment by segment. It is a structured dance. In this way, ballet is comparable to language.
The positions are vocabulary, the sequence of movements is syntax, the very specific way you
must do each movement is grammar, and the fluidity to perform each movement represents the
dancers fluency. In as much as dance can be used to carry a message, it can also be just that; just
a dance. Similar to our words, we say them sometimes to communicate, other times, they are
uttered but are meaningless; just empty words. Mostly, dance movements are a lot more
ambiguous, but language can be ambiguous too. The interpretation of a dance by a viewer may
vary from the interpretation by a dancer, but thats okay, because each one of us has experiences
and cultures that may change the way we understand things. Language can be interpreted in
many ways too, particularly literature. An important distinction between dance and language is
that dance overcomes language and distance barriers. Speakers of different languages will not be
able to understand each other at all, but since movement and dance is common to every human
body, dance can be understood and can be given interpretation by anyone.
In ballet, the movements are slow and deliberate. The posture must be maintained at all
times. It is fluid. A body part follows another body part in flowing movements. It is repetitive,
and performed with symmetry, i.e. you do a movement with one leg and arm, then switch it for
the other leg and arm. Timing is of utmost importance. It was very relaxing to watch, because the
structure of the dance made sense. It is truly calming, seeing so much grace and order in an
otherwise chaotic life.
All the dancers were beginners, but some had an obvious aptitude to ballet. Generally, the
girls were more graceful and a couple of boys too. Most of the boys, however, were awkward
and bumbling. Typical. However, when they dance as one, the awkwardness and bumbles fade
away. They become princes and princesses. Its quite easy to imagine them wearing fancy gowns
and costumes with crowns on their heads, ballet-walking to the next ball in the castle.

Dancing ballet is not easy at all. Even the basic moves can be overwhelming especially if
it is your first time.
The beauty of ballet lies in its structure and rules. Sometimes we get overwhelmed by the
happenings all around us. Ballet teaches us to focus again on ourselves, be aware of every
position of our body, every vertebra in the spine even. Through this rigorous dance form, we can
let go of everything that bothers us and concentrate on the rules only, concentrate on the flow of
movement, concentrate on moving to the beat. This is a therapeutic experience. Because ballet
grounds us, letting us know that despite everything that we go through, there are still
fundamental rules of life and dance that will serve as our guide. And through everything else, it
is still possible to conduct ourselves with grace.
It is baffling when we think about how ballet can possibly express emotion and ideas or
any meaning at all, when every move already has set rules. The answer is in the way the
movements are pieced together. Just like language, a single word will rarely convey a full
emotion or idea, but the way you put these words and sentences together contain the meaning
you want to express. In ballet, the way you moved and put together the tendus, derrieres, pointes,
etc., the fluidity of your movement, can all contain meaning.
In this day and age, everything is fast-paced. Everything is constantly changing. Even
though ballet itself has changed much, ballet connects us to the past as we move and dance in
positions that have been developed, though at its core unchanged, through the centuries.
The second part of the class activity was contact improvisation. Unlike ballet, contact
improvisation is less strict. Less strict in the sense that there are a lot less rules (hence
improvisation). In fact, theres only one rule: do not lose contact. This exercise does not focus on
the precision of moves but is based on bodily awareness and physical reflexes which utilizes
mostly the sense of touch.
At the start, the dancers were asked to walk around the area with their shoulders down,
arms on their side, and chest down while feeling the space and with a sense of people around
them so as not to bump anyone. At some points, once a signal clap goes off, they were to stop
walking and to perform movements - roll down, plank, roll up and walk again. This routine
persisted for a few minutes and it was done to condition the body to be mindful of their bodies
and their environment. The warm-up exercises ended up with their lying on the floor a contact
with the ground. In theory, connecting with an an inanimate object, particularly the Earth, our
source, would be a good way to start a connection before having to maintain contact with another
person. To assess the control of the body, the body weight is transferred to the center of the body
by lifting the limbs ever so slowly while continuously feeling the parts of the body which are in
contact with the ground.
Contact improvisation is a form of dance that involves body contact between two or more
people. In the class activity, two people of the same sex and approximately the same body weight
were asked to partner up with each other for the exercise proper. Movement with only body
contact through hands was performed. The hand of the leader is placed on top of the hand of
the other person. The leader is tasked to control the other persons whole body. The person

whose hand is at the bottom should follow the other person. The follower should be able to tell
what movement the leader is going to make him do by sensing pressures and whatnot through
their connected palms. Again, there is only one rule - to not lose contact.
Weight-sharing, on the other hand (pun not intended), was also done by sharing
someones weight to the other, keeping the center of gravity in between the hands of both
partners. This exercise was further explored, and different parts of the body, not only the palm,
became points of contact. According to Newtons Law of Universal Gravitation, gravity causes
an attractive force between two bodies over an infinite range, such that anything with mass in the
universe are drawn to each other no matter how far apart they are. Interestingly, this law could be
applied to the partners in contact improvisation as they tried to transfer the center of gravity
between two bodies to the head, arms, backs, legs, etc. More than the dance partners, Newtons
law, the connecting with the Earth part, the possibility of weight-transferring between two
people, shows us how connected we all really are, to each other, to our planet, and to the
universe.
In retrospect, contact improvisation has been more than a dance. More so than ballet,
contact improvisation really requires communication, as it is a more social dance. A lot of
reliance must be placed on your partner. It is all about giving and taking weight, and
manipulating momentum to be able to freely move. It is a lot harder than it looks. More than just
a dance class, it also contained lessons about life.
One lesson is that sensing what the people around you (particularly your partner) feel,
can do or cannot do, can take or cannot take, is important. Without the sensitivity to your partner,
you both fail, because then social interaction (which is a big point in contact improvisation) is
rendered moot.
The dance also teaches us about mutual trust, without which, the partners can easily get
hurt. Dancing this without trust can easily lead to a person falling and hurting himself because
the partner has not been able to catch that person. Again, movement is done by giving and taking
weight, and without trust, that is, mutual trust (because this wont work if the trust is one-sided),
this cannot be done at all.
The improvisation part teaches us to be spontaneous. In thermodynamics, spontaneity
leading to increase in entropy is favored. Truly living our lives favors spontaneity. We must learn
not to fear, but learn to go with the flow, learn to be more free, learn that its not always about
rules, learn to seize the day, because that is what makes our lives beautiful. Humans are distinct
from the rest of the animal kingdom, because we can imagine unlike any other. When we are
free, the possibilities are limitless. The boundaries and inhibitions we have set for ourselves are
all in our minds. Just as in contact improvisation, with an open mind, you can create something
truly beautiful.
The dance teaches focus. In the part where only palms touch, and the partners have to
lead each other, focusing on the leader was very important so as not to break contact. In this
life, we are so easily distracted by the happenings all around us, the chaos of everything
happening at the same time, that sometimes we lose focus. We lose focus on what is important,

we lose focus of our goals. It is important to have a focus and a goal, because without it, you
would be drifting along, pretending to be part of something, when in reality, you are
disconnected.
Contact improvisation has also taught us about ourselves. In this dance, we can discover
our own limits, feel our own bodies, as well as sense the bodies of those around you. We learn to
appreciate the possibilities. We even appreciate the difficulty of the dance, difficulty of just
letting go, because in the end, we see that we are creating something magical. The dance reflects
expression of ourselves, and our interactions with others, i.e. our partners.
According to Claude Levi-Strauss, culture is best expressed in art. Taking the Merriam-Webster
definition of art as something that entails imagination and skill, as well as feelings and ideas, we
cannot deny that dance is an art. Therefore, dance is also one of the best ways that culture is
expressed. This dance class has truly shown us that movements put together in various patterns,
even with different rules and structures, either precise or imprecise, its complexity, its aesthetic,
can all mean something. And their meaning lies in culture and expression of culture.