by Kimberly Peterson

The Dance World is made up of several large countries, some smaller provinces and many big cities…however the sense of community between them, the community they continue to build and the community they foster all enable dance to be the cultural and societal force that it is.

Dance has long been deeply rooted in culture and tradition, pride in one’s location and the skills of their people, embodying the history of a nation to be relived over and again for future generations so they may know and experience where their people have been. It is political and apolitical, it is emotional and devoid of emotion, it is both all things and nothing and in this ambiguity there is a glorious freedom.

Through the ages, it has tied people together, bridged the gaps between spoken and written languages, expressed the common experience of a body in motion uniting us within that shared medium.

Community can denote many different things, but in this instance, I believe it is most apt to return to the Latin cognates from the French term communité: the Latin cum, “with/together” and munus, “gift”. Together, With A Gift.

As National Dance Day once again kicks off at the end of this week, it reminds me that one of the most beautiful things we can do as human beings, is to give of oneself in the hopes of reaching another person, connecting with another person. Dance is, for many reasons, a universal vocabulary and offers us the opportunity to come together, with that gift. [Read more…]