By Le Xuan, Toan & Lutfil
Someone once said that ‘If you stumble, make it part of your dance’. After all, perfection doesn’t exist in the dance through life, and that shouldn’t stop people from dancing through it (sometimes literally) either. Batch Project (BP) Dance is the perfect avenue for people to stumble and discover more about themselves along the way, for everyone can be a dancer here. This year, BP Dance committee will be collaborating with beneficiaries at the Singapore Association for Mental Health (SAMH) to create a simple dance piece together to encourage freedom of expression. The committee consists of freshmen who have varying levels of dance experience. We interviewed Charmaine and Liyana from the committee to find out more about their experience so far as part of the BP Dance committee and what they have to say about it.
Learning to dance online is new to both of our interviewees. Yet there’s nothing much to be done about it due to the ongoing pandemic and it comes with its own set of difficulties (even if we’ve had over a year to adjust to) compared to learning how to dance with everyone in one venue.
Liyana, learning contemporary, mentioned certain technical challenges faced, from “not having enough space to move around at home, or the inability of the camera to capture the entire body” - space is a restriction. After all, furniture at home takes up quite a lot of space, compared to practicing with others in a more spacious dance studio. Knocking into furniture sometimes is also never pleasant, and probably can’t be avoided even if you move some of the furniture about to make more room for yourself.
Charmaine, part of the hip-hop team, told us that “maybe in real life it’s easier to see if [one] makes mistakes … being more scared to try since [one] is more visible with people around but it goes both ways, like when [one] tries to get help faster.”
Compared to practicing with others on Zoom, being more exposed to others in real life means mistakes made become more obvious, and these mistakes get corrected faster as well by those with more experience, possibly due to technical aspects such as being able to see everyone and their full bodies. Learning offline might thus be more efficient because of these reasons. Some are also struggling with the mirroring effects of Zoom, which affects how some process which hand and legs to use for which steps.
However, despite these challenges, both the freshmen are still approaching BP dance with an optimistic outlook!
Charmaine has no dance experience prior to BP but is still trying her best to give her all in rehearsals. When we asked her what she had taken away from rehearsals so far, she noted that now she felt that “[she] shouldn’t worry about how [she] looks on camera/messing up because everyone else is also learning as well, so [she] shouldn’t be afraid of judgment.” Everyone definitely has to start somewhere in order to progress with learning something new.
In fact, Charmaine has repeated “just do it” to herself countless times because she believes that you never know what will happen until you try. Letting go of her initial worries about making mistakes (which is something many of us struggle with) has allowed her to embark on her journey in BP dance with an open mind. Being afraid to mess up is human, and for many, it is something that can never be truly erased. However, that still shouldn’t hold people back from attempting to fully immerse ourselves in the process. After all, doing our best not to hold back is important for us to make the most out of any learning experience.
Since she mentioned having learnt how to dance ballet in real life before, we asked Liyana how she felt about learning to dance online. According to her, “learning dance over Zoom is a unique experience… but it has actually worked with the seniors' guidance and everyone's determination to learn the steps together.”
It appears that she doesn’t view it as something to be upset about, having also said that “[she] has enjoyed BP dance rehearsals despite technical difficulties”. From all that she has told us, this suggests that moving things online has not made BP dance any less meaningful for those involved. Being able to make good progress despite the lack of close physical proximity to one another is a testament to how everyone is contributing in their own ways to ensure that rehearsals are fruitful. Seems like the seniors and other freshmen have been working well together to keep up morale and get things done.
Yet, the journey has also been a steep learning curve for a lot of the freshmen with
many designing their own personal goals and objectives to achieve from the experience in BP Dance. For many, like Charmaine, their goal is to step out of their comfort zone and learn a new craft that has never been explored before while those with more experience, like Liyana, are keen to step up and take on a more collaborative approach in contributing to the project.
Dance is a craft that requires body coordination and movements that are purposeful
to portray emotional meaning and effect to the piece. This typically entails an innate personal drive to be open and willing to express oneself freely. Being in tune with one’s body ensures that one will be less impeded by the technicalities of the movements in the choreography, allowing the movements to flow organically. However, not everyone has the benefit of prior experience. Without a background in dance, Charmaine finds it more challenging to absorb the choreography and translate it into physical movement. Therefore, she requires more time to condition her body before being physically receptive to it and executing it effectively.
Despite the challenges she faces, Charmaine remains unwavering towards the cause of
the project by striving relentlessly to improve her craftsmanship at her own pace. Additionally, she re-affirms her commitment to the project by encouraging herself regularly to take the leap of faith by "stepping out of [her] comfort zone" regardless of the outcome. In doing so, she hopes to be more confident in herself which is in turn paramount to engage the SAMH volunteers meaningfully.
“I think I definitely hope to step out of my comfort zone,” she mentioned and “[she]
think[s] the most important thing is to always just try.” Her gumption in overcoming her unfamiliarity with dance and making the best out of it is certainly admirable!
Meanwhile, we gathered there are those with a background in the art of dance seeking
to push their personal boundaries while learning dance online. Besides focusing on the technicalities of dance, they are motivated to hone other soft skills and values through the experience. For instance, Liyana, who used to learn ballet briefly, intends to take a more active role in the dance project process by extending a helping hand to her friends who are less conversant with dance. Believing that a successful dance performance is contingent upon collective effort rather than the individual, Liyana finds the project the perfect opportunity to harness mentoring skills, necessary to address the different learning gaps that her peers might be facing. As a result, she fosters a warm and welcoming environment that encourages learning experiences over outcome and actions over judgements.
“Personally, I hope to be a more spontaneous person in the dance committee! Dancing
really forces me to be more open and think on my two feet when I see others who may struggle with certain steps so that I can try to guide them better,” Liyana remarked, when asked what she hoped to take away from the experience.
Furthermore, dance like most performing arts, is often undergirded by natural reciprocity
and formidable group synergy. Apart from being in sync through dance movements, the ability to be in harmony with other performers in terms of aims, mindsets and attitudes is crucial in delivering an organic performance that can be celebrated as a group. Liyana believes that the spirit of camaraderie is the bedrock upon which relationships can be developed. The friendships formed through a jumble of moments of jocosity, exasperation and uncertainty are ultimately instrumental in contributing to a consummate final performance. Doing so certainly encourages fruitful discussions particularly in coming up with ways to impart the choreography to SAMH volunteers.
“I'm also hoping to gain meaningful friendships along the way with the rest of the
committee, by spending more time practising with them and understanding their perspectives on how we can teach the dance better!” Liyana cheered as she remained sanguine in collaborating with her peers to facilitate engagement with SAMH.
In closing, it appears that the dance experience so far has been an eye-opening one for many freshmen. Despite the disruptions to learning dance brought by Covid-19 and a shift to learning a physical art form online, many of them have risen to the new challenges by being adaptable and resolute to see the outcome of the project to fruition. Consonant with the aim of Batch Project to facilitate a safe space for those who experience mental health struggles to explore their creativity and expression in a judgement-free zone, the freshmen have truly displayed courage, teamwork, and empathy for one another in the process, despite their different levels of experience. Yet their journeys remain far from over, the apotheosis being imparting their knowledge and choreography to the SAMH volunteers. Nevertheless, we are confident that these values coupled with the friendships they have made, and the guidance of their seniors puts them in good stead in teaching the choreography to the SAMH volunteers. We wish them all the best in the rest of their journeys!
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