I battled college all four years. I wrote angry emails to professors, I wrote angry program reviews to my academic department, and I wrote angry thoughts on teaching methods in my assignments. Sometimes I could be one bitter student. I never felt like I "fit" in college. Every year I questioned whether it was worth it and if I should have been there in the first place. It was worth it, but not for the style of teaching I endured.
I wish there was more freedom in college. I wanted to try art, for instance, but I was always scared to because I didn't think I could make A's in it - and I wanted to preserve my GPA. The same was true for dance. I enjoyed writing creative non-fiction (essays and reflections), but you could only major in literature or fictional creative writing (which I hear was a joke). I wanted to try several languages, but that would put me behind in a major. During my freshman year, I took an interest in education policy and spent hours in the library reading about it. It was a graduate specialization, though. I think there was a certificate I could get if I studied an area I didn't want to first.
I told my mom - among several others - that I wanted to reform education. "The only way to reform education, though," a friend said, "is to become a teacher." Get into the system first, is what I think he meant. Go through school AGAIN? I thought. Over and over? Are you kidding? It wasn't worth it for me.
Break-Through Idea:
When I graduated and left academia, I dove more deeply into dance. It introduced me to a whole new world of engaging my senses. The information in dance is conveyed verbally, visually, kinesthetically, musically, emotionally, "feeling-ly" (using physical feeling), and others that I can't all name. It's a surround-sound learning experience. I supposed that we exercised all these senses when we were children. For instance, young children don't have access to verbal communication like adults do, so they must use all their senses (such as visual - facial expressions) in order to understand. However, once we are taught to read and write, our other feelings become dormant and remain under-developed. Dancing, I believe, can allow adults to re-enter the world of feeling and sensory communication that they left behind.
When I moved to Tucson, I became exposed to a deeper practice of yoga, meditation, and engaging my sense of smell (incense and candles are popular). People often talk about physical "feelings" here and vibration and energy. An awareness to these senses - which I believe are truly real - has opened up a whole new level of living for me.
I'm going out on a limb here, but I'm going to suggest that dancing allows us to activate the senses and levels of intelligence more than any other activity: it utilizes music, kinesthetics, social intelligence, touch, physical feelings/responses (different from touch), emotion, visual and verbal communication, balance (often forgotten, but considered a logical sixth sense by some), and spatial awareness. It lets you be logical and mathematical, too, if you wish. I think all it's missing is taste.
After understanding (albeit semi-consciously) all that dance offered me during the past few years, I knew I wanted to make it a central part of my life. Looking at it now in comparison with my "formal" education, I want to use it to change the way people are educated. I want to encourage people to use all their senses and try things without fear; teach them to engage their bodies and minds in more than 2-3 ways. As adults, I hear we only use a small percentage of our brain (20% I think?) and I think dance can open it up. The world is so much more than what we perceive, and I'd like to help people tap into it fully.
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