Dance Commentary: Learn to Love Something By Doing It, or How I joined Le Grand Continental and Discovered the World of Dance

I hope thousands of people show up to see Le Grand Continental-Boston next weekend. Not to see me, but to see how dance can change the way we appreciate our world.

Paul Fallon rehearsing for Photo: Robert Torres

Paul Fallon rehearsing for next weekend’s Le Grand Continental-Boston. Photo: Robert Torres

by Paul E. Fallon

When I auditioned to be a member of the Celebrity Series’ Le Grand Continental-Boston (LGC) dance celebration in Copley Square Park, a choreographed street dance of local citizens, I expected to meet people beyond my usual sphere, learn cool dance steps, and have fun. In the three months between auditions and our upcoming performances on May 16, 17, and 18, LGC has exceeded all of those expectations. But my first foray into choreography has also brought an unexpected benefit: a deeper appreciation for dance.

From the first rehearsal I realized that the dancing I enjoy at clubs and weddings is different from dance as an art form. I can apply pressure to my partner’s shoulder to guide him through a jitterbug swing or waltz turn, but coordinating multiple bodies through space to music is enormously more complex. Simple gestures aggregate into complex moves, which become challenging sequences. I began by memorizing step A + step B + step C, a sound, though tedious, method of learning. Practice videos with music proved difficult to follow, but I valued the ones with counts. I understood dance as a math problem. Over time, patterns emerged, repetition, then order, and finally, the accents that interrupt order.

I discovered elements of yoga and running embedded in our choreography. Then I found dance in everyday movement; mundane chores like hanging laundry and raking leaves induced motion that evoked dance. As I mastered sequences, I craved further complexity.

I’ve seen Boston Ballet once or twice, but knew little about our city’s other dance offerings. My curiosity led me to an Alvin Ailey presentation at the Wang Center as well as spring performances by the Boston Conservatory and local dance troupe Urbanity. After witnessing three performances within a month, I was struck by the physical and emotional wallop dance can offer.

The Boston Conservatory’s Limitless demonstrated the physical range that aspiring professional dancers must achieve. It also illustrated aspects of dance I’d never considered. That Mark Morris’ Canonic ¾ Studies could be so funny or Dwight Rhoden’s Fits of Hissy so precisely exhausting. Tommy Nesbitt’s The Past is a Foreign Country explored the trauma of the Kosovo War with an emotional depth that transcended words. Following that piece with Karole Armitage’s decadent Rave seemed inappropriate, yet it felt exactly right in that time and space.

During a rehearshal of Photo: Robert Torres

A moment during the rehearsal for the upcoming Le Grand Continental-Boston. Photo: Robert Torres.

Alvin Ailey presented a pinnacle experience. The visual and emotional impact of the company pulsing in the syncopated gallop of Aszure Barton’s LIFT resonated for days afterward.

Yet Urbanity’s performance spoke most directly to me. Perhaps the cognitive leap between my own abilities and those on the stage didn’t seem insurmountable, merely huge. Urbanity offers so many ways to dance: children; adults; seniors; amateurs; professionals, there’s a place for all. The quality of dance was high, but the purpose and dedication that each dancer brought to the stage was even higher.

My exposure to professional dance evoked two questions. First, is there a common thread that ties Urbanity’s high school student Peter Mazurowski and Alvin Ailey veteran Antonio Douthit-Boyd? Second, why has my street dancing in Copley Square triggered this broader exploration?

The common elements I discerned among Limitless, Alvin Ailey, and Urbanity is the ability of dance to tackle thorny issues while maintaining human connection. The dozen dances I witnessed addressed confrontation, love, war, and death. Yet the very nature of dance demands we maintain relationships to one another. Every move by every dancer is tied to every other human on stage. As long as we cling to the tension that binds us, humanity’s potential to triumph remains strong.

Urbanity

Urbanity spoke the most directly to Fallon because the group suggests that there are so many different ways to dance.

Why this seems relevant to me now is a matter any educator or social scientist can explain. When we immerse ourselves in something, anything, we appreciate and respect it more. The Celebrity Series is investing significant time, money, and personal energy to present Le Grand Continental. In exchange, 112 people are enjoying an experience that enhances our relationship to an art form. Hopefully, the thousands more who attend will gain fresh perspective on art in general and dance in particular.

Art requires people to perform as well as people to witness. The Wallace Foundation has documented that creating art, even in my own rudimentary way, increases a person’s appetite to consume it. In the art world, supply and demand grow together. The more art we create, the more we crave art.

In a nation where public funding of the arts continues to decline and there is a measurable disconnect between arts education priorities and funding, we must constantly stir the pot of creative endeavor. Otherwise, artistic initiatives will stagnate.

I hope thousands of people show up to see Le Grand Continental next weekend. Not to see me, but to see how dance can change the way we appreciate our world.


Paul E. Fallon blogs at theawkwardpose.com.

1 Comment

  1. Barbara Golder on May 11, 2014 at 10:56 pm

    Yes, I am dancing as part of Le Grand Continental. I am a recently retired pediatric occupational therapist with very limited formal dance training, but I love to dance. Everything about this experience has been amazing. One night, a small group of us were practicing with the music. For some reason, at a particular time in the dance, (not necessarily a beautiful section or anything) I could not contain myself, and shouted, “ I love this part!” Hard to explain the connection between my movements, the music, and just something beyond… But what came next was really the ultimate surprise – 3 or 4 other people shouted “Me too!” These are people of all ages, all walks of life, who I hardly know– yet we experienced some kind of shared joy. Maybe this is no big deal to other people, but it means a lot to me. Gratitude.

Leave a Reply Cancel Reply





Recent Posts