How I Feel Our Dance Academy Benefits Our Community

 

"Dancing is a perpendicular expression of a horizontal desire." - George Bernard Shaw.

 

In both urban and rural settings, dancing schools play an essential role in constructing a community of people who share a common goal, passion, and aspiration. An aspiration to live happily and beautifully. 

 

This blog is a short personal meditation to portray the influence that dancing had on me and why I think our community can benefit significantly from dancing. 

 

Apart from local employment opportunities, dancing academies stimulate many social and cultural improvements in the community. They bring people from different ages and fields with different experiences and motivations into a room with a large mirror to reflect upon their own dancing figures, twisting, turning and jumping in rhythmic unison. It's not just dancing institutes that do this. Actingand modelling institutes in Kolkata also bring people together and give them a space to express and perform their mutual desires and aspirations. 

 

When I first set foot in my dance academy in Kolkata, the rhythmic movements, accompanying beats and the dancers' energy surprised me. All I wanted to do was resonate the same. I saw my neighbours whom I never spoke to or interacted with, dancing to the same beats that I was, following the same movements that I was, happy as I was. It made me think about the togetherness our community craves but is lost somewhere between commerce and modernity.

 

As the days went by, we started having conversations and got to know each other. We were growing, learning how to do the perfect tendu, flat back and leg swings and trying to perfect the movements. I was rooting for them to learn their moves and they were doing the same for me. 

 

Then, one day, the teacher of my dance academy in Kolkata decided to arrange a little competition. The students were segregated into four teams of six members and my neighbours and I was placed on the same team. We worked together as a group, created our little dance routine and practiced.

 

The mutual support, trust and empathy that we fostered during our practices is what dancing is all about. Alas, we lost the competition, but I realized – my community looks and feels better when we all dance together.