Brianne Burnham

3/27/13
Pat Debenham
Dance 461
No/Yes Manifesto Statements
No to guilt trips as a motivation to create and dance
As you walk into the studio, you immediately are responsible for yourself. If the other dancers
are not doing what you want, you do not tell them you will leave if they do not start dancing.
This is a time to improvise the situation and turn it into a learning experience without contention.

No to half effort in practice
The way we practice is the way we will perform. Dance is hard, and takes a fully engaged mind
and body to move it the way it supposed to.

No to vague gender roles
If there must be separation in gender when dancing because of the intent of the choreography,
portray pure gender roles. Reach the essence of a male and female.

No to torture
A teacher will not yell at or force dancers to repeat steps over an extreme amount or threaten
them the students.

No to idleness
Being idle has no purpose or structure.

No to meritocracy
Dances potential is found in the collaboration of different elements among multiple artists. To
be a successful dancer you gratefully welcome the assistance of another soul.

No to colorblindness
Once we try to see different races as one color, we take away the richness of life. Celebrate the
different colors and begin to learn from them.

No to extinction
I believe a dance style should never go extinct. It might evolve, but never disappear.

No to No
I believe the word no should be taken out of the vocabulary when teaching dance. A teacher
needs to be flexible when critiquing and giving feedback. That would be correct if I was asking
you to do it that way.

No to pride
Our bodies are a gift, and we must treat our bodies so. Without them we are nothing, and so we
must dance to prove we deserve our bodies that were so gracefully given by God. You can have
pride in your dancing, but do boast in yourself.

No to audience
A person should dance as if no one was watching. If there is audiences use the fear of
performance, accept it and become powerful. The audience is your support, not your purpose.

No to even-ground
We should dance like we are on mountain tops. We took the journey up there with one
perspective in mind, now we look ahead and see a bigger picture. We would not get there if
mountains did not exist and there was only even ground. Mountains good represent trials or
weaknesses that we overcome.

No to consciousness
I believe there is structure to impulse. But to improv is to find out who you are that day without
thinking about it.

No to big pieces
A dance is not one big production. It is millions of small and tiny moments of magical pieces
connected to make a master piece. One muscle fiber fired at a time.

Yes to boom, boom, ba
There is always a heartbeat in movement, and we must recognize that inner pace can be as fast or
slow as we feel appropriate.

Yes to firsts
Do not doubt yourself until you try it. There is a first for everything in dance.

Yes to protecting the sacred
I believe we should keep out the sex innuendos, and keep the integrity and virtue of the dancers.

Yes to self-rule
Honesty and owning up to our personal movement is gigantically mesmerizing; a competent
dancer controls the body using natural laws of motion then using those laws creating
masterpieces. Movement is richer this way.

Yes to risks
Sometimes the body needs to condition itself to take risks, including mind, and spirit. We have to
challenge our limits and always question our weaknesses.

Yes to Questioning with boldness
You will never find out the truth unless you ask questions boldly with no hesitation to gain
understanding.

Yes to Multiple intelligences
This will give students the opportunity to show their strengths and help the teacher understand
the dynamics of the classroom.

Yes to Urban Bush Women
These women dance with power even though they might have big butts and thunder thighs. They
prove to us that body image doesnt bring success. It is the heart and passion.

Yes to the unknown
Caroline introduced me to this concept. When I improv I try to reach that place to investigate
movement.

Yes to healing
Dance helped me get on the path to healing from abuse I survived as a child. Healing requires
more than just dance though.

Yes to education
I believe education makes information useful in my life. Dance gives education a different
purpose and action to things and feelings in life compared to other subjects.

Yes to accompaniment
More than body connectivity, a dance must show a connection between time, which can be
portrayed through music, or sounds, or silence.

Yes to clothing
Dancing nude is immoral and disrespectful to the sacredness of the body. We must bridle our
passions. Let the audiences imagination be challenged, instead of giving them a nude body on
stage which is not challenging the imagination, just challenging not to look at the private parts of
the dancers.

Yes to hidden language
I believe dance is a language, like sign language or Spanish. And the hidden language can be
found to those who are opening their hearts and desiring to know.

Yes to enhancing beauty freely
I believe anything good will give freedom to us. Dance never takes away our freedom. It only
lets us see through a different perspective of freedom in life and the beauty with in it.