Week 1 ~ introduction

Monday the 2nd of Feb. brought with it the first lecture of ESA3011 - that is The Anth. of Modern Social Dance. To be honest I had absolutely no idea what to expect of the module; I'm glad to say I was pleasantly surprised by what I heard and experienced. The lecture itself was mostly focused on providing an overview of the module itself and the elements it entailed, the expectations of us, and the aims of the lecturer.
The second half was dedicated to the readings of H. Wulff, P.Spencer, W. James, and J.Skinner - the reading were intended to provide an overwiew of the actual field of dance anthropology; it's main teachings and problems, it's areas of enquiry, and methodologies used by those in the field. As none of us had yet read the readings there was very little discussion possible. However, after having read some of the readings later in the week one point in particular intrigued me; that was that most of the authers argued for 'dance', or bodily movement/gesture, to be the 'mother' of all language - that any other form of communication can be regarded as a derivative of "dance" [See James 2004, and Wullf 2001]. It is an argument I find very interesting and would like to learn more about.

Another aspect which compelled me was that of the aestheticisation of everyday/ "street" [Skinner2008] movents - that is how the everyday processes and actions we go through can be identified in the movements of dance. It is a point I have never really thought about, but one which I can honestly not argue against.
The workshop (or 'dance ensemble') which forms part of this module is to take place on every Wednesday of the week; and as such today saw its initiation. The dence ensemble, lead by Ms. B. Prentiss, is to focus on the teaching of salsa (Cuban style) - taking us from beginners to (hopefully) advanced over the duration of 12 weeks.

Today's session introduced the different styles of salsa (of which there are many - divided mainly into two categories: Casino, or Line. In the prior the partnership between the two dancers is equally divided, in the latter the male/lead dancer becomes the centre around which the follower travels in a linear format. The Casino style can be sub-categorised into Cuban, Miami, and Columbian style; the Line format encapsulating L.A., New York, an Puerto Rico styles.) and explained the style we would be aiming to learn and comprehend. Thus, Ms. B will be teaching us the Cuban (casino) style in which the partners both travel around a central space which exists between them; the hold is rather relaxed and functional with the leader holding the follower's right hand by placing thumb in the palm - both palms facing (more or less) downwards. And so we progressed into our first salsa lesson - the remainder of the class being focused on the teaching of the basic step for both leaders and followers. [As the dancers mirror eachother's movement here, the step woulod be the same for each, just the leg used would not i.e. the leaders starting with left, the followers with right.]
The rhythm for salsa is always counted in eight - thus the steps being as follows: Back Forward Forward Pause - Forward Back Back Pause.

Having danced some latin and ballroom myself before (several years ago) this class brought back many many memories. It was also fun to see how the teaching methods differ or are similar. One of the apsects I found particularly interesting was to see how differently individuals cope with learning to move to rhythm, and how each finds certain aspects easier than others. For me the main difficulty was that of hearing the 'one' in the intricate rhythms of the salsa music, as well as the constant changing of parners -which although alot of fun, it posed a challenge at the same time. An aspect I have not touched on is that of the male/female balance in the group - which is non-existent; the females greatly outnumbering the males (of which there are only three). Thus more often than not the dancing parner is of the same sex; to me it didn't seem to pose any problems, but it may be too early to comment on the significance of this.