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Art and the Community: Breaking the Aesthetic of
DisempowermentA presentation by Sabrina Boyer
Prepared by Dr. Kay Picart
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Aims
• to show the importance of context and intent over form and content
• to show dance as a mediator between nature, the self and the community
• to illustrate individual growth through community involvement
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Review Questions
• What is “monetarist materialism?”• According to Christine Lomas, it “seeks to
control and shape culture and cultural processes, denying our human capacity to interact with the natural world.”
• Why is this important to change?
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Review Question
• Lomas quotes Simpson in saying that the community is the life-blood of social life, a set of conditioned emotions which an individual feels towards the surrounding world and his fellows. Communities are empowered by individuals.
• Do you agree or disagree?
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Discussion Question
• How does dance offer the individuals in the community dance group Jabadao a sense of self fulfillment and feelings of achievement?
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Review Question
• According to Lomas, what is an “animateur?”
• Britain defines one as “a professional community dance and mime activist working in a community context whose post was funded either wholly or in part by public arts subsidy.
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Review Question
• What two approaches do animateurs use in order to teach dance within a community?
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Discussion Questions
• Both approaches emphasize technique--What does Lomas say about teaching conventional techniques?
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Review Question
• In what 3 ways is community dance flawed?
• Who shapes our taste in terms of Dance Art.
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Inclusion vs Exclusion
• How does a theatrical aesthetic limit our capacity to view dance?
• What happens when the main emphasis on the dance is the “end product?”
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Discussion Questions
• How does dance improvisation coincide with Lomas’ point of cultural and natural cohesion in dance?
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Discussion Questions
• Could improvisation be seen as a form of technical study?
• Do movements speak louder than words?
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Discussion Question
• By using experiences, sensations, and memories to create random movements in dance, do you think dance improvisation could be seen as virtual reality?
• Instead of focussing on “dancing well” and the “end product,” do you think members result in better involvement and responsiveness?
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Concluding Question
• Should society value professional dance over community dance similar to the dance group Jabadao, in which Lomas draws many of her arguments from? Why or why not?
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Lomas, Christine. Art and the Community: Breaking the Aesthetic of Disempowerment. Dance, Power
and Difference Sherry P. Shapiro, Editor, 1998. 149-
169.