For the last couple of weeks, I’ve been in rehearsals for the Showcase for the Professional Semester I’ve been doing at Broadway Dance Center (BDC) here in New York. This year a lot of the choreographers are choosing to use the numbers they’ve choreographed to make social statements on the current situation our world is in. It has been another wonderful reminder of just how powerful our voice is as performers.
When a person walks down a dark corridor in a scary movie, that action itself isn’t scary, but then you add the suspenseful music and all of a sudden you’re sitting on the edge of your seat yelling at the person not to walk down the dark corridor (but seriously, why do they always walk down the dark corridor!). Music has the ability to make people feel things but more so people also tend to attach memories and emotions to music enhancing its power, combine that with dance and you have a powerhouse combination with the ability to affect real change in this world.
We’ve seen it time and time again, when there is some disaster or life-changing event that occurs in the world, a lot of the time the first people to begin fundraising efforts or get the word out are performing artists, whether they be, singers, dancers, musicians, painters or actors. Our industry gives us a platform to spread a message and that responsibility is one to not be taken lightly.
Right now though, I’d like to talk about dance specifically and the incredible power it holds. Dance transcends any language, that is the beauty of it. It doesn’t matter what language you speak, put dancers in a room and they will move together. while living in Japan and here at BDC I have experienced that joy of dancing with people from all over the world. I’ve watched choreographers teach to a room where at least 30% of the dancers speak little to no English and they still pick it up and kill the routine, and when we come together something truly magical happens. For that minute of choreography, we all speak the same language, we all come together in our own way and create something beautiful. That is the power we hold as dancers. We possess the ability to make our audience feel something without saying a single word and that is my goal every single time I step out on stage. I want my audience to feel what I’m feeling as I perform the choreography, I want them to walk away from the performance with something, whether it be as simple as they enjoyed it or it challenged them and made them look deeper into something they hadn’t thought about.
To my fellow artists, never forget the voice you have and the ability it holds to change and influence peoples lives for the better. We live in uncertain times, but one thing that is certain is that love is love and all we can do is continue to spread love through our work and continue to make a difference in our world and peoples lives.
Until next time,
Jared xx
Brisbane To Broadway 