I MUST DANCE;

A PERSONAL TREATIES

Blair VanWagoner

DANCE 261 Freshman Seminar in Dance

10 April 2017
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I must dance. When written it is simple but in action it is not always that easy or that

simple. Many people speak about having a life calling, specific destiny, or role in society. These

people have an unfulfilled need to pursue that passion, career or hobby. I am one of those people.

My calling is dance; it is a need. I have tried to run away from it before, but I always seem to be

running in a circle that leads right back to dance. For me it is unavoidable, and at times it has

been unwanted, but always necessary. Simply put, when I am not dancing, I am not happy.

Dance is so many things, and with dance I am connecting with myself and others on a cultural

and personal level, I am creating and in so doing I am connecting with God, and in this my

beliefs are firmly woven. Dancing is a must. It is necessary for it is life, not for everyone, but for

me.

According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, the definition of Dance is, to move one's

body rhythmically usually to music.1 This is not my definition. Dance is so much more. If one is

dancing, one is communicating. The dancer can be communicating with anyone, an audience, a

critic, a fellow dancer, God, or ones own self. The communication isnt always coherent, but it

is always there. Whether a story is being told, an emotion shared, or an abstract thought debated,

for me there will always be communication. My definition of dance can include movement, and

stillness. The same goes for music, it is common with dance, but not necessary. Dance can be

personal, or it can be shared with many. At times it is even shared among a whole culture. It can

be a part culture and even help create it. Dance is a social statement.

When we view dance as a social statement we understand its importance on a larger

scale. Sam Gill wrote, It is without question that throughout history in almost all cultures

1
Albert Einstein Quotes. Art Quotes Categories. http://www.art-
quotes.com/auth_search.php?authid=841#.WOuQYojyvIU.
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dancing is inseparable from religion and culture, from agency and identity, from tradition and

change.2 Everywhere we look there is dance, and not just on the stage. We are familiar with

stage dancing such as ballet, but we also need to consider our cultures tradition of the first dance

of a husband and wife after they are married. In our culture at that same event there is the

traditional father daughter dance. Almost all Americans know the Macarena and electric slide.

Dance is woven throughout our culture. In the past there were community dances where couples

would waltz, swing, tango, and lindy hop. Now we have prom with jumping, grinding, and mosh

pitting. Dance has changed but it has not disappeared. Other cultures are also highly saturated

with dance. In some cultures in Africa dance can be a rite that must be performed in order to

receive a specific place or political standing in society. Our very own Native Americans have

used dance to influence war, and even the weather, the most well-known being their rain dance.

Most if not all cultures have some form of dance, and just like me, cultures cannot completely

run away from it. Dance shows who we are and express to the world what is important in our

specific cultures.

As mentioned before, dance expresses who we are and what is important to us. The same

goes for me specifically. I am a dancer, but I am also a person with many passions, interests,

likes and dislikes. My movements and stillnesss, or in other words, my dancing can portray all

of this to an audience and to myself. My desire to by adventures and risky can be seen when I

push just beyond my limit with a jump, turn, or lift. My love of family, friends and human

connection is displayed through my eye contact and physical connection with fellow dancers. I

am not me without dancing, and my dancing is nothing unless I put myself into it.

2
Dance. Merriam-Webster. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dance.
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For me, and possibly other dancers, they best way for me to put myself into dance is to

choreograph. Choreography is a way for dancers to reach the divine, to fully create art.

Choreography itself is the art of creating movement sequences and the art of arranging those

sequences on a dancer or a body of dancers. There are many aspects of dance. There is

athleticism, performance, musicality and much more. Choreography is the creation of dance. As

a Latter-Day Saint (LDS) dancer, I believe that we were all created by a divine being. God is the

artist behind this glorious world. He is the great example. Our LDS belief is that we are his

children. As his child I see his creation and I too wish to create. I want to reach the divine in

whatever small way that I can. Creating dance allows me to do this. I feel some small sliver of

what he must of felt while and after creating this beautiful world. While choreographing I can

begin to understand my own self. I can wrestle with my own thoughts, passions, and problems. I

can also learn and come to better understand eternal truths such as the purpose of life. Art allows

us to think and explore beyond human limitations. While choreographing our imaginations are

constantly in use. Albert Einstein once said, Imagination is more important than knowledge.

Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.3 I know this to be true. This is what we,

as artists, are here to explore. We must go beyond this world, towards the divine. Imagination

brought into reality through dance is the noble aim which I reach for as an artist, as a dancer.

Growing up, when I saw dancers on stage I saw amazingly elegant people with the world

at their fingertips, however when I saw them offstage at times that image was completely lost.

Some of the dancers I saw maintained that elegance in their personal lives, but others did not.

Others were broken, and sad, and lost. They forgot their true aim in art and life. It hurt me to see

3
Sam Gill, The Importance of Dance to World Religions and Cultures.
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my heroes and role models less that I thought them to be. I vowed to never be less in life than I

was on stage, and I know I can do this through my beliefs. With dance and God I can be a free

spirit. I can change and become better, stronger, and more apt to learn and climb closer to the

divine while dancing and while living, for I cannot do one without the other.

To live I must dance. My God has given me a talent and a passion and if I waste it I will

be sinning against my God and my nature. I did not necessarily want to be a dancer, but when I

tried to leave it behind me, my soul ached. I could not leave it. I must dance just as I must

breathe. True happiness is doing what you love in an atmosphere of growth.4 Growing in dance

is and always will be one of my greatest sources of happiness, and wholeness.

4
Gretchen Rubin, The happiness project: or, why I spent a year trying to sing in the morning, clean my closets,
fight right, read Aristotle, and generally have more fun. Harpercollins. 2015
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Bibliography

"Albert Einstein Quotes." Art Quotes Categories. Accessed April 10, 2017. http://www.art-
quotes.com/auth_search.php?authid=841#.WOuQYojyvIU.
"Dance." Merriam-Webster. Accessed April 10, 2017. https://www.merriam-
webster.com/dictionary/dance.
Gill, Sam. The Importance of Dance to World Religions and Cultures.
Rubin, Gretchen. The happiness project: or, why I spent a year trying to sing in the morning,
clean my closets, fight right, read Aristotle, and generally have more fun. New York:
Harpercollins, 2015.