Why dance studios make a great social environment

English: Dancers in class at Pineapple Dance Studios, Covent Garden, London – Teacher: Mark Battershall (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

(Here’s the original article that used to be on my Helium.com account up until the site closed down)

Dance studios will always be among the best places where people can gather and come together. If people can have the opportunity to be part of a fun social environment typical in any dance studio, they will discover that they can be themselves and with others who will accept them as they are. They will soon find out that they will be dancing with one another or as a community together during special events. If you are a newbie in a community and interested in dancing, look up for the closest dance studio and show up soon. You will certainly find yourself among people who are your best prospects for new found friends and acquaintances.

1)    Dance studios are where you find people with same or similar interests as yours. One major reason why people gather together at a certain location is due to similarities in activities. Dance studios facilitate the easy flow of socialization among different people who happened to have the same interests. They also happened to get together because they have similar interests without the need for long tedious discussions common in other social groupings.

2)    Dance studios are conducive for all levels of people to come together without much of the usual awkward introduction that take place in most typical social situations. You start right away with the fact that you are there to dance and you do not have to explain much about yourself. In fact, you do not even have to give many details about your background, your work, your business – you just have to be willing to dance (and learn to dance better).

3)    You meet someone who usually puts his / her best foot forward. At the same time, [s]he is also actively on the lookout to know someone (or more) as a new good friend. This receptive attitude facilitates the very easy process of meeting up people who are attracted to others who are new to them. People readily open up to meeting up with others in dance studios. This easily cements friendships and acquaintances as they will soon find themselves looking forward to meeting up with those they meet in the dance studio next time.

4)    There is always a topic to talk about when you are in a dance studio, without much of those awkward moments in other social situations. You can go on talking anything about dance and you will not be excluded from the main topic of discussion. If other topics have been exhausted or covered before, all parties concerned can always go back to the main topic of dancing.

5)    Dance studios make it possible for people to communicate without much verbal exchanges actually taking place. Participants will just have to listen, observe attentively and take action accordingly depending on what their respective roles call for. In fact, ‘talking too much’ will just make you less endearing to some as you are supposed to be ‘dancing.’

6)    There is always the opportunity to laugh warmly together in dance studios. While you are on your way to learning a dance (or rehearsing a dance), you can share jokes and laugh at humorous situations that are a-plenty in dance studios. You see others make mistakes, which can be laughable (but you are careful not to laugh aloud as some easily get offended). But at the same time, you will also get more opportunities to laugh at your own mistakes, which is better than taking situations more seriously than necessary during dance sessions.

Take heart now. Go and make that phone call for your first (or next) visit to a dance studio.

Dance studios can almost always be found anywhere where at least 100 families or so live, work, and gather together. Of course, the figure is based on my hunch and from my observations in places where I’ve been visited and have lived in. I see dance studios even in my neighborhood in Stapleton in Staten Island, NYC, which neighborhood is not that close to the best known neighborhoods in the city.

Dance studios usually are visited by parents, their children and other individuals where they look forward to learning something about dancing, practicing their dance skills, as well as in connecting with others in the language of dance. This art, which we call ‘dance,’  is a separate language in itself; you don’t really need too many descriptions to explain the art as it is largely based on movement. It’s based on vibrations you sense and the movements that you body make as you relate with these vibrations.

And you’ll be amazed at seeing people getting connected on certain levels of awareness when they dance. Just watch two or more people dance together, and you’ll be surprised those who are involved in the dance are actually interacting with each other. Or even just watch someone who prefers to dance alone. This person is still very much connected with others who dance.  The very connection, the feeling and sense of  connected-ness, the movements in any dance provide for the basis for people to get together and do common activities that make them more fun, exciting, lighter to execute, to repeat, and learn from as a social activity.

And dance studios are places where you can learn so much from others who are very much like yourself. You gain insights about yourself as you dance with others. Inevitably, you make mistakes. And you get encouragement from others who are in these dance studios with you. From my personal experience, I’ve come to know and have met so many people who include my teachers, my classmates and other individuals who have similar interests as mine on dancing as soon as started visiting and dancing in dance studios. Some of these studios I get to learn new dances, to practice my skills, as well as become good friends with people I’ve met there. I’ve met people of varying ages, body types, races, characters and background. I’ve come to appreciate  different styles of dance because I’ve met and talked with so many wonderful people who expertly dance these styles. Most of them have been gracious and very generous in giving me tips on how to improve in my own dancing style.  I’ve continued showing up and learning about dance, and have turned it into a regular event every week in my life nowadays.

Annual events in New York: Dance Parade

Annual events in New York: Dance Parade (This article appeared in my Helium.com page until the site closed down)

The Dance Parade New York (DPNY) is dubbed as the “world’s only parade to exclusively celebrate and showcase the diversity of dance” and has always taken place in the month of May since its organization. Its website says it started in 2006, where 37 styles were showcased with 75 dance groups and 2,321 participants. The New York Times (NYT) reported about it in an article published in May 20, 2007 entitled “Dance Party on Broadway, No Cabaret Licensed Required.”

The DPNY is run by the Dance Parade, Inc., a 501(c)3 registered charity, with a mission “to promote dance as an expressive and unifying art form by showcasing all forms of dance, educating the general public about the opportunities to experience dance, and celebrating the diversity of dance in New York City.”

The New York City (NYC) Cabaret Laws, legislated in 1926, played a role in the creation of the DPNY. The blogsite of author Mark A. Thomson (“Wolfchild, My Hawaiian Paradise”) mentioned: “Since 1926, the city of New York (of all places) has restricted public dancing. According to an antiquated statute, it’s necessary for any public establishment to have a special permit if more than three people are going to be sharing their thang.” Mayor Giuliani would often use the law to crack down on nightclubs and other places where dancing takes place and where the police would also observe abuses on alcohol and drugs.

In a case that asked the State of New York Supreme Court, among other questions, if dancing, as a form of artistic expression, is protected by New York’s Second Amendment Freedom of Expression clause, the court decided that dance “could not be differentiated from aerobics and therefore was not considered an expressive form of art.” This court decision encouraged leaders to organize groups to join a parade before the public to demonstrate that dance is a form of expressive art. Greg Miller, the director and founder of Dance Parade, Inc. then “enlisted civil rights attorney Norman Siegel, former head of the New York Civil Liberty Union, to obtain a parade permit for 75 organizations to celebrate many diverse cultural and movement forms as possible: a dance parade.”

Brian Dube’s blogsite “New York Daily Photo” posted photos on DPNY’s third annual parade, with pictures that can be seen here. It also reported “Every imaginable type of dance was represented with broad ethnic diversity. There was Samba, belly dancing, swing, Korean traditional dance, Polynesian, Indian, Nepalese, Afro Latino, Mexican Folkloric, modern, tap, jazz, disco, ballet, plenty of hoop dancers and other creative works. Dance lessons were offered and after parties were thrown around the neighborhood.”

The fourth annual parade took place in May 22, 2010. Announcements were made in many events sites, including that of the NYT’s “The Listings” on dance. Reportedly, at least 10,000 dancers from 200 dance organizations with over 70 styles of dance registered for this occasion as based on the report of the site of CultureMob.

The DPNY even have its own ‘New York Dance Police’ (NYDP), a group of volunteers who will issue tickets to ‘bystanders’ whom they observed during the parade and “were not moving to the groove-either out of rhythm, glum or just plain standing there, were all good reasons to be written up. Judgments against guilty parties have resulted in offenders being sentenced to Dance Halls, studios or nightclubs to practice or learn a style of dance.”

For additional information on DPNY, check its website here.

blog: My book review on ‘Living Well Is The Best Revenge’ by Calvin Tomkins

Image via Wikipedia

blog: My book review on ‘Living Well Is The Best Revenge‘ by Calvin Tomkins – http://ow.ly/3Yvg3

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A "Target Free Friday Night" Visit to the MOMA (Museum of Modert Art)

Below is a vast Willem de Kooning painting hanging on MOMA’s walls, among his other paintings. Note the number of visitors and other enthusiasts that crowd during “Target Free Friday Night” at this museum. Certainly, you’ll save your cash and get to encounter modern art pieces upclose, thanks to “Target,” by just lining up before 4pm with many others. I’ve done this many times. On each visit, I’ll just focus my attention on a certain exhibit, and will always try to revisit the other permanent exhibits without spending much time on them.

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The succeeding are pictures of Pipilotti Rist’s recent exhibit at the MOMA; I didn’t know her before I came to the museum. But the exhibit offered me a great opportunity to encounter the works of another artist whose works would have been kept away from me, if I chose to stay someplace on Friday nights.

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Recently got myself an opportunity to visit the MOMA (Museum of Modern Art) one Friday. A friend refused to join, as he knew the Museum would be “targeted” by visitors who would like to avail of the “Target Free Friday Night,” as sponsored by Target, to the MOMA. Seeing this as a bargain, people, including myself, would definitely find time to come and enjoy what MOMA offers. But in this visit, I didn’t really have to line up outside that very chilly evening (the line outside usually starts to get longer, even before 4pm every Friday) with the big number of visitors showing up Fridays; I arrived past 6pm.

This time, I didn’t get to see Vincent van Gogh’s “Starry Night,” the iconic oil-on-canvas painting drawn in 1889, measuring 29 x 36 1/4″ (73.7 x 92.1 cm). It’s part of an ongoing exhibit, that “require(s) a separate, timed-entry ticket (at no additional charge)….available at the exhibition entrance on the second floor.” It’s always a source of fascination and intrigue knowing that van Gogh eventually went on to become insane and had kept on trying to kill himself until he “succeeded” in 1890.

That Friday, I had the opportunity to tour again most floor exhibits (where I again viewed some of Warhol’s pop-art pieces, Picasso’s and Jackson Pollock’s wonderful paintings!), with a big number of visitors from all over the world, reflecting diverse nationalities, and with this trip being my 15th time around. The first one was during the time in 2003 when the MOMA had to move temporarily somewhere in Queens in a schoolbuilding they used to call “P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center” (if I’m not mistaken, which houses art objects that may appeal to those wishing to see recent works, and may be somewhat similar to exhibits found in art galleries in the LES, including “Cuchifritos” where I’ve done volunteer gallery intern work). But there’s always something to discover with the MOMA. Even the very building itself is a great modern work of art, which was redesigned by Yoshio Taniguchi. In this visit, I enjoyed most thoroughly the playful and splendidly colorful effects of a digital photo exhibit (I didn’t note down the artist’s name, though—- SHE’S PIPILOTTI RIST, and watch her in this YouTube video) with distorted figures and shadow-like pictures splashed across and moving all over the big open atrium (or perhaps another exhibit area that looked like a huge, modern boutique hotel) where people congregate to get perplexed by the experience.

I took some pictures as what can be seen anywhere here in this posting.

And I was delighted to have capped the evening’s MOMA visit by having a cheap but tasty meal I bought from a Middle Eastern gyro food cart after lining up through a long line of hungry fellows like myself located at W53rd St & 6th Avenue (which I wrote about in a separate brief review in my Yelp account).