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Vivienne Villaescusa Senior Seminar- Dance 459 Professor Austin 25 March 2014 Personal Philosophy of Dance Minds greater

than mine have pondered the question, but to formulate a response, as an authorized answer, would be to give me more power than is rightly mine: What is dance? It is personal. I can no more define what dance is for you, the reader, than I can describe your experiences waking up this morning. Only you lived it and you felt it. Dance is personal, and so, I shall not attempt to argue what it means for the world but I shall endeavor to describe the way dance has impacted me and what it means in my life. Dance is my past and my present. Its my emotional journey of life, and is tied to nearly every aspect of it. In some ways, one could look at my relationship with dance as a happy chance encounter; a book tossed into a young teenagers hands that I happened to take a fancy to, which would later become a favorite subject on the metaphorical bookshelf of my life... and that description is partly true. However, I prefer to look at my relationship with dance as a gift from a thoughtful parent, who after studying their daughter knew what would capture her attention and carefully waited until the right time to bequeath her a gift of significance--a compass--to explore a path and take her along a journey in which she would build character and learn more about herself. Dance reaches into every crevice of my day. It affects the clothes I wear, the food I eat, the friends I have, the way I view myself, the way I view my future, how I view dating or love, my belief of faith and my spiritual life. Of the past eight and half years of dance being present in my life I have had my fair share of bruises, aching muscles and trials. Dance is physical. Dance

is emotion. Dance is sometimes spiritual. Through dance, I have experienced some of my lowest moments as well as my greatest triumphs. Dance has been a porthole for learning greater lessons about myself and about my faith and relationship with God. What is dance? Dance was a compass given to me by God. I believe God has used dance in my life to make me a better person, to test my limits and my faithfulness to Him. It has been used to see if I would follow His direction or go my own way. It was given as a great gift but also a test to see if it would become an idol. Why do I dance? Like many, I dance because it allows me to express myself. I dance because the external music around me, and internal music within me, prompts me to transform my feelings into motion. I dance to discover myself and to find purpose. Dance is a compass. I have sometimes pondered what life would be like if I suddenly lost the ability to physically move my body... I believe, beyond the physical, that I would still dance As long as there are emotions to express I will figure out some way to share them with the world, because that is dance.

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