Many critics of dance have strong opinions about the purpose of dance and what is an "acceptable" use of dance in our modern world. In 1994, Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company premiered a new work, Still/Here to a mixed bag of acclaim and criticism. Mainly, critics took issue with the manner in which Jones generated material for the dance; much of this work was based on movement and ideas created in workshops Jones offered to people with life-threatening diseases. PBS did a fabulous documentary on Jones' process (hosted by Bill Moyers) if you would like to see this first hand.
Critics argued that dance as therapy was not dance at all. Some said Jones capitalized on the pain of his participants to create his dance. Having seen the documentary myself, I strongly disagree. I think anyone in tune with his or her body would probably disagree as well. To quote another great dance teacher, Anna Halprin: "It all goes into the body. The body has information the mind doesn't." Dance is a catharsis. It was clear to me that the participants in Jones' workshops greatly benefited from their experience and Jones, in turn, was able to express important ideas to a vast dance audience.
Halprin has been transforming lives through dance for decades. Diagnosed with breast cancer in 1972, Halprin was operated upon and in her words "cured but not healed." She said doctors gave her a clean bill of health, but she remained afraid. "To cure is to physically eliminate a disease. To heal is to aim at attaining a state of emotional, mental, spiritual and physical health. It is possible to be healed, but not cured. And of course, someone can be cured, but not healed," Halprin states.
At 82 years-old, Halprin is still teaching transformational dance and remains an important force in American dance. Halprin, though, doesn't think of dance as entertainment. For her, it is ritual. Dance has meaning for Halprin because it is useful in people's lives. Though that idea sounds simple and pure, it is really quite revolutionary in our society today.
Dancers know the power of dance. Shortly after my grandmother died, I had an idea for a dance I wanted to do in her honor. But I couldn't do it; my feeling were too raw and my body was not ready to release those feelings out into the world. As dancers, we understand there is information contained in our bodies. I once choreographed a piece about body image and had a dancer break down because doing the movement touched on issues she had held deep inside her body -- issues she was not completely comfortable with. But she was empowered to be able to release them. People like Jones and Halprin are helping dancers and non-dancers alike to tap into this power and use it to heal.
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