they're the same picture (or are they ???)

    Lately, I've been thinking a lot about the difference between 'dance' and 'movement'. Because there definitely is a difference, I've realized. 

    

    Previously, 'movement' and 'dance' were one in the same. If we're discussing these words in terms of theatre, then both are used in the modicum of telling a story. In my pre-movement-class-brain, I thought they were the same. They're used to tell the story so badda boom badda bing done and done. But that's not true.

    

    While both may help tell and show stories, these words differ in how they express that story. At least, to me, they do. Lemme break it down.

    Movement: The basic building block in telling a story through the use of your body. It can be as subtle as the shifting of an eye, turning your waist, or raising your arm to reach for something. It is the very basics of the motions of our body and how those motions convey emotion and action. 

    Dance: It's like movement, but fancier and with technique. I don't mean to say that basic movement doesn't require technique, but comparatively, it doesn't use or require the same modicum of technique or skill. To dance tap or ballet or jazz, you need the technique that defines that dance style. These forms of dance are hyper specific ways of telling a story in specific ways of moving the body. So yeah. It's like movement, but with more defining points of technique that set the movements apart from other forms of dance or movement. 

    So yeah. This is the difference that I have begun to notice during the class this semester. It was something I had never thought of before. But after watching everyone's movement projects, I've been thinking about it and what I do in class.

   

    Everything I do feels very... dance-ey. Whenever I do something, I feel like I try to add an element of dance or grace or control that makes the movement feel separate and different than a normal movement. For instance, in my movement project, when I went to go hug the Sun, instead of just hugging the sun, I stretched out the movement and tried to make it feel more floaty and graceful. Or look at my clown. I wanted to try this one movement of being on the ground and being kinda sneaky and sneaking around, but instead of just crouching or crawling on the floor, I did this weird squat thing with a leg stretched out that felt reminiscent of Fosse to me. 

    I don't seem to trust myself to just do basic movements. Even though I have no training or experience in dance, I think there's this part of me that feels the need to make what I do look pretty or dance-like. And I think that's been inhibiting what I've allowed myself to do or explore in my projects and clown work this semester. For the remaining time in class, I wanna try and explore doing movements. Not anything dance-ey, but just movements. I'm looking ahead towards the lip sync for my clown and I have a few ideas, but I gotta figure out how to do those things in a very natural and movement oriented way. Not a dance oriented way. Not to say that dance is bad, but this time, I want to stay away from trying to make myself look like a dancer when I'm not. 

    

    So there's that! As I begin working on my lip sync for my clown, I think I'm going to do what I did with my 2nd movement project and write a short story that encapsulates what will be happening in my lip sync. I think writing out something specific like that helped me create a blueprint of what to do during the music, so I want to try it again and see if it's as helpful this time around.