Dance is Nothing Without Feet and Alignment

Written by: Kenneth-Michael

The beauty of dance is such a vague topic to address because there are so many aspects of dance to observe. Recalling when I was enrolled in my first dance class, the instructor seemed to find the beauty of dance in the feet and in the alignment and lines of the body. The course was a modern dance class which focused primarily on body awareness, balance, and coordination. Our first assignment involved pointing, flexing, and massaging the foot. For a week, we would spend five to ten minutes preparing our feet, which at first was unusual to me. Many times, the instructor would marvel at the students’ footwork and walk around the class, looking at their feet instead of the routine. When asked, “Why the fascination over the foot?” his reply was because it guides the body in line formation, balance, and the flow of energy transferred.

Slow Dancing (www.slowdancingfilms.com) by creator and director David Michalek takes 45 dancers from different dance backgrounds and cultures and records a five second routine. Each dancer was given five seconds to dance in their area of expertise with the end result displaying a slow motion 3000 frame-a-second-film lasting from two to eight minutes in length. The films were shown on a five-story screen in front of the New York State Theatre in New York City in 2007. The significance of the dancers in Michalek’s films is noticing the different twists and turns the foot travels. When the movement is slowed down, you are able to see every arch, twist, point, bend, and curve that the foot makes to guide the rest of the body.

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http://etmmagazine.info/freeyourmind/2009/09/articles/2009_09_danceisnothing.html