Dear dance gods, I am writing to you today, as the wonderful and expansive step vocabulary that you gifted our artform seems to be drowning in a sea of crotch shots and badly placed spins that once resembled a fouette pirouette. As the sun shines on a massive Australia wide competition season, the lycra is forever continually flowing just as it did when it was all the rage in the 80s, fluro has even crept its way back in by the metres. This however is the least of my concerns, the distance between professional dance and competition dance is widening at a frightening rate. Once where a developpe second with correct placement and strength has disappeared and replaced with not only a hiked up hip, but for some reason the need to hold the leg, to demonstrate the blatant fact that you are unable to hold it there by itself. Acrobatic work ever impressive in the right routine and correct placement and climax is disjointedly placed in every genre, yes even tap dance, as if one cannot dance without it, for fear of being left out of a flooded club of flippers for the sake of flipping. Artistry second fiddle to steps that do not join or connect with fluidity or interesting use of levels and space. Pathway matters little as we all clap and cheer in wonder and amazement as anyone and their cats dog prepare for an abundance of what almost resembles fouttes with flapping heavy working legs, and supporting legs that fail to fully lengthen finishing with a pirouette that spins around on a flat foot. Oh how the crowd erupts at such a sight, like it has never been seen until that moment. Gone are the times where footwork, technique and correct placement is seen and steps for the sake of trend no matter what genre take precedent in the fear that just because someone winning is doing it that you in turn will not win because of it. In my career I was blessed with can you believe, never needing to perform a foutte, leg mount, side tllt, scorpion, aerial cartwheel, nor a slow and uncomfortable shoulder stand with legs in second crotch forward oops fall and roll out of it badly stand up, but I am sure times must have changed. Last time I saw the only side tilt or leg mount would be seen in an item such as Sweet Charitys Big Spender, which of course is a section about prostitution, where again I am sure all 7 year olds should be gearing up for such a role at their age. Call me not with the times, but Google did tell me that in the entire world there would be a minimum of 1 million dance steps, that to me seems that we have an abundance of wonderful movement to create pathways to music with a time limit on a stage for a correct age that every performer should have a routine unique and perfect for their look, ability and gender. Heaven forbid that I say we have gotten lazy, but if that is not the case, what has happened, where did it go wrong, how out of thousands of competitors are we seeing the exact same steps arranged slightly differently to different music, or in a lot of cases the same music. #lethergo As we all merge into one, I feel an intervention is needed by you oh powerful dance gods, to once again let us dare to be different, to go against trends for the greater good of our industry. To rediscover the wonderful and thousands of steps of years gone by and infuse them with the steps of the future. To create unique movement according to which genre is being attempted, to regain a passion for fully lengthen legs, pointed feet and pirouettes on a strong and lifted demi point. Arm placement that is actually placed accordingly, motion in and out of the ground that does not sound that in a years time due to wear and tear the dancer will not be able to walk again let alone dance. For us to step back and look at the bigger picture, where winning, as life and death as it is, will actually still occur based on wonderful dance, beautiful and breathtaking routines that take you on a journey whilst demonstrating strength, skills and technique, where at no moment you know where the performer is taking you based purely on what the performer before them also did, and the performer before them and so on and so forth. Where dance is dance, where movement is movement, and where we all take hand in creating the dance of the future, whilst incorporating the past, and captivating audiences in our present. Yours truly, Paul Malek.
Posted on: Sat, 05 Jul 2014 07:20:30 +0000
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