“Everyone can dance. Dance is for everyone.” - Simone Momplé
‘It’s just dance’ you might say, why are we getting so emotional? To you reading this I ask, what is dance? I have asked this many times to many people, I have even researched it in my Master’s Thesis project, and nowhere have I found a solid description or definition of dance. This intrigued me even more, because if we cannot find nor agree on one explanation of dance, then how can we say we can’t dance? One of my favourite responses to when someone says they can’t dance is…prove it.
Over the past few years dance has made quite a resurgence through social media. It has become the crux of any performance you might see live or on TV. It has ultimately given anyone the opportunity to become a dancer.
Long before this dance hype, I came to the awakening moment of realising that everyone can dance. I became a Zumba Instructor in 2012 and started teaching at gyms, churches and corporates all over South Africa. Starting in Pretoria, Hartbeespoort, Port Elizabeth and ending up in Cape Town. I knew that keeping fit to be able to dance well and to be the instructor would be of necessity, and this made me quite anxious initially. I remember hosting my first class at a Church hall in Pretoria, I asked the members to arrive 30 minutes earlier to sign in! I think I taught 4 songs in an hour, with long breaks in between. Besides being extremely nervous, I was out of breath most of the time too, demonstrating my unfit state. It didn’t take me too long to realise that the people attending my classes were actually more nervous than I was. This changed the way I taught, but didn’t mean that every time I stood in front of a class I wasn’t nervous. I mean having about 5 to 25 sets of eyes looking at you as you’re about to teach never really gets comfortable.
In 2014, I joined a dance studio again (after many years of not being a part of one). I had missed the comradery and pressure of learning in a class environment. At this point I was teaching still Zumba classes and being a participant in a hip-hop dance class every week. This made me privy to two worlds of dance, while this was a time I was rediscovering myself personally. After a few months of this routine, I started really paying attention to the dynamic differences and similarities of these two dance worlds. At the Zumba classes, I would have members come to me before the class and apologise for not being able to dance. They would add that as a courtesy, they will just dance at the back of the class. Some would hardly be able to make eye-contact with me. Others would have extremely judgemental looks (at least to me it felt like it). Basically, their ‘not being able to dance’, or ‘having two left feet’. Here, a lot of different emotions and tensions surrounding the dance fitness classes would surface.
In the other world, being a participant in a dance class with people I didn’t know and an instructor I was getting used to, made me confront many of those emotions and tensions within myself too! I had to overcome so many barriers to being fully present in those classes. It took me a long time to ask a question in class, or even be able to stand in the front row. I was experiencing much of what those attending my dance fitness classes were, yet, I could not explain to them that I understood how they felt.
Reasons why people might feel they cannot dance is because they are watching all those dance videos on social media or TV and thinking that that is how dance should look. That is the bar they set for themselves. But who decided what dance was supposed to look like? If I tell you to dance, where will you get dance from? Is it a box we are meant to step into and comply, or does it exist within us?
In my opinion, dance is for everyone and everyone can dance. The way you define dance is right. Dance is not meant to look a certain way and it is not meant to be kept for specific people. If you ever just want to go somewhere to dance, be it a dance studio or a dance fitness class, remember that you shouldn’t have to tick any boxes to be given access. You don’t need to make excuses about not being able to dance, because dance is you! Dance cannot exist without you.