"You’ve got to! We're all dancers! It's inherent, we dance to celebrate, we dance to mourn; It's what we do. You're all dancers, it's just sometimes you need somebody to help you pull that out."
-Dance Instructor Diana Campos explaining her passion for teaching dance
Introducing the Contemporary Dance I class. This is not your average elective course! Listed under the Physical Education subject when registering for the class, it is a 2-credit class with an emphasis on being Hispanic-Serving.
Photo courtesy of Professor Marcy Henry
Wright Times Staffer Jasmine Coleman spoke with both Professor Marcy Henry and Instructor Diana Campos to learn more about the upcoming Spring course. Instructor Campos details that “You don't have to have danced before; you don't even have to be an aspiring dancer-dance is just something that is good for everybody. And so, this [class] makes it accessible”.
The dance class is new to Wright College and has taken some time to get established. Even though the other City Colleges have dance classes already, Wright was the only to not offer any in the discipline. Instructor Campos affirms, "Yeah, it's a revival that took about four to five years. That's a long time for Wright to not offer anything in the genre at all. So, this is going to be a very awesome [course], and I hope lots of students want to, you know, explore. As a Phys Ed class, all they need to do is to check with their advisor and see if it can count as one of their electives, which is usually where it can fit outside of somebody pursuing a specific physical education degree."
Specifics about the class from Instructor Diana Campos:
1 Part Movement
"...it is a movement class mainly, but there is an element of lecture. So, we will talk about dance history. We'll also talk a little bit about Latin history since there's going to be the Latin dance performance at the end of the semester."
1 Part Lecture "...the lecture portion: we'll be talking about where these dances come from. Maybe the situations in those countries talking about a little bit since it's a contemporary class, it's going to be modern ballet and jazz technique."
So, it is an introductory dance class with an emphasis on Hispanic culture and inclusion for all! Dance is something people take for granted or think it's supposed to be a certain way, but after the conversation with Professor Henry & Instructor Campos, the class is so much more than just dance. Instructor Campos explains, "It's movements within dance history, body positivity, and collaboration. As somebody who is teaching it, part of it is what I just shared with you, giving back, so everything I got, now giving it back, but then the other part is...". Professor Henry chimes in, "embracing and celebrating all of the cultures that fall under these umbrella terms of Hispanic, Latinx, Latina, Latino to honor the student body and the culture and the history of this country and so forth.
Previously, dancing was just regarded to be like ballet and standard techniques, but now the genre has expanded. Professor Henry agrees saying, "A lot of our dances have been relegated to this like folkloric dance, and I don't think the tie between specifically Latino and African and dance movement is talked about enough. Most dances, most Latin music is African based, the beat and the rhythm." It is important to note that contemporary dance is modern, and the time of now is quite different to dance in the past. "Western dance is very upward movement, and African dance is linear, embracing the earth, spreading outward. It's about inclusivity. And your heartbeat is the rhythm that we all can dance to and that we all have this propensity to want to move. So why don't we feel more comfortable doing that?"
Professor Henry further tells us, "...any sort of movement, whether it's yoga or dancing to a rhythm or just any simple stretch exercise where you're connecting your mind and body, where you're not having to think so deeply about all of this stuff, it is important to keep it moving and to move purposefully through the world. There's such freedom in that, and we all live in a body."
Instructor Campos adds to the discussion by saying, "So you're doing this, this beautiful thing for your body. And at the same time, you're feeding your mind. Because especially when we're talking about combining things like Latin dance, we're going to talk about political environments, we're going to talk about wars, and we're going to talk about the movement of peoples."
Getting to know the passion Instructor Diana Campos has for dance a bit more:
"Dance is a language, just like you would study Spanish or French, and you want to immerse yourself in that, and in the culture dance it has the same effect, and it's so therapeutic."
Getting to know how Instructor Diana Campos structures her class:
"I want to make people feel absolutely comfortable because it's an A level 1 [course]. So that means anybody and everybody who wants to be in there should be in there. You don't have to have had any dance training before. I'm going to go from the beginning."
"It's easy to think dance is not for me because I'm too old, never danced before. I'm plus size, you know, even having differing abilities. I've even taught students with different abilities. I've taught students in wheelchairs...dance is for everybody. And so, that's the environment I try to create no matter which dance class I'm teaching, it's important to me. I was a plus-size dancer when it was not so cool to be a plus-size dancer. So, you know, I feel like the effects of everything [and] how I got treated right in my journey. In my career, I feel like I try to undo that every hour and 20 minutes I get to teach."
Again, This is not your average elective course!
Listed under the Physical Education subject when registering for the class, it is a 2-credit class with an emphasis on being Hispanic-Serving.
The Contemporary Dance I class is new and available for registration for Spring 2024 now!
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