Since moving to the United States, I have felt very disconnected from the people around me, especially people who were born and raised in the country. In each class or group I have been in, I have tried to belong, but the person who was belonging was not me. When I started at Wesleyan as a transfer student, I struggled for two reasons: first, it was my first time leaving my family, and second, there are cultural differences between Connecticut and Georgia. Even though I was in the same country, the educational system in Georgia is very different from the one in Connecticut.
However, when I started my second semester, specifically in this dance class, I felt an immediate connection not only with the people but also with the space. This class has been a gift for me. Throughout this semester, I have been reminded of what is really important: connecting with my roots and improvising.
When we started to dance Bomba, I felt like I was in my home country, Venezuela. The dance reconnected me to my roots. I had never considered the fact that this dance was a form of resistance until I took this Africanist aesthetics class. The most exquisite kind of protest of which I have ever heard is dancing because you are oppressed. This particular style taught me that credit must be given to the person playing the drums, who is referred to as the “bombero.” There has been a before and after for me with Bomba, and I am happy to say that I am staying with the after.
Another style on which I had a little bit of knowledge was House. This Africanist aesthetic taught me that the only places to seek refuge were the clubs in Los Angeles, where the house dancers felt free to dance in a way they would not in a public space. Before learning this style, I was embarrassed to show uncommon movements in public. However, our fantastic guest Tyron told us that even though the movements we are doing are not common, as long as we as dancers have attitude and a big pose, the not-common movements are unnoticeable. This is the equivalent of the aesthetic of the cooler when people are dancing and make a mistake: if they do not demonstrate that they have made a mistake, nobody notices. This lesson is not just for dance; it is for life: when people make mistakes, they have to keep going and not stay with the mentality that they have failed. People have to learn from their mistakes and grow.
Jazz also has a very important place in my evolution process in this class. The knowledge I had about this style was very little, and with this class I had the opportunity to learn through improvisation. Syncopation was something I learned this semester. I also learned how call and response have very significant roles in this activity. Without the call and response, it would not make any sense because syncopation, jazz, and almost all of the dances have the emotion of call and response not only with the music but also with the people you are dancing with. Throughout the semester, I have learned about improvisation and how it is a means of experimenting with what you already know in order to generate new ideas, rather than a sign of not understanding how to accomplish anything.We cannot leave a word without improvisation because it would be boring, and we cannot leave a word without dance because it would be a world without sense. Dance gives us joy and hope when things are not going well; dance is the escape where we can go and leave our problems.
