Last Fieldwork Diary Entry (July 7, 2014)

The fieldwork conducted for this research dissertation has been a work-in-progress throughout. Instead of an in-depth investigation of one field site, I have conducted a field skim over six different sites. I found this process appropriate for the research subject. Everyday dance, or spontaneous social dancing is so broad that it was useful to get a small taste of the dancing found at different places rather than concentrate on one venue or event.

It is always refreshing to be taken out of one's comfort zone so I particularly enjoyed visiting dance events in different areas of London that I had not been to before and interacting with the people that I found there. I was extremely heartened by the strong response I received in my survey. I had hoped to get at least fifty responses and so to have seventy four people respond was fantastic. My regret being that there is so much information contained within the survey that I could only touch upon the data contained therein. 

Here are some of the new places I visited during my fieldwork:

The dance floor at Duke's Bar
Image courtesy of http://www.designmynight.com

The Future Laboratory
Image courtesy of http://insidefmm.com/

Ovalhouse Theatre
Image courtesy of http://www.londontheatre.co.uk/

St Swithuns Church Hall
Image courtesy of
http://ourhithergreen.com/

As I visited field sites briefly, I didn't have the in depth engagement with people at each site as a more traditional field work set up might achieve. I found this engagement instead through the interview process. I enjoyed speaking with the eight volunteer interviewees. Some were known to me prior to the interview and others not.  But to speak with all of them in an in depth way about dance proved to be an enjoyable process.  Several times, I ended the interview regretfully as I found the conversation so interesting (although I'm not sure all my interviewees felt the same way) The interview process was my favourite research tool throughout this project.

Several friends supported me through the research process by sending me dance related information such as articles, YouTube clips, dance events to attend and other topical materials. The field broadened every day due their thoughtfulness and interest. Other friends put me in touch with potential interview subjects and others volunteered to go dancing with me. It was heart-warming to have such support and also to feel that because I was so focused on everyday dance, it perhaps passed into the awareness of others too. 

                           Some of the Youtube dance clips I was sent during the research period

It was a huge effort for me and my family to structure our lives to enable my fieldwork to happen. It has been tiring and expensive. It has been really enjoyable at times and not others. I have struggled with guilt throughout. How do you explain that fieldwork is the reason why you keep disappearing to a three year old kid and is it fair that your husband has no break for four months so you can go out dancing? Sometimes the last thing I wanted was to drag myself out to dance with my researcher's hat on. Which is why some intended field sites such as a night out with work friends at a bar or a time travelling DJ dance night became simply social nights out. Despite the ups and downs, the last four months of fieldwork have reaffirmed how much I relish it as a research method.

I was very much a part of the key demographic within my research; those who say that the older they get, the harder it is to go out dancing. Before I started this project, I had only been out dancing once in the last two years. My everyday dance life was non- existent despite my love for it. Once I got out there again via fieldwork, I was  reminded that time on the dance floor can rejuvenate in ways untold. It is hard to describe the sense of well-being that a good dance can generate. As I said before, it really does feel like the ultimate high. 

Going out dancing helped me reclaim an energy, attitude and perspective which I had let lapse since my twenties. My mind had calcified over the topic of everyday dance and I had become stuck in my thinking about it. Like many in my age demographic, I had ceased to think of everyday dance as a regular activity which I could participate in. My chief reason being that it was just too hard to organise myself to do it. But now I can see that was just an excuse. It is harder to do it than when I was in my twenties and childfree but not that hard.

Although I started out trying to find out what made people dance the way they do on the dance floor, my research question changed to three questions. One of these is:

Why do people stop going out to participate in everyday dance once they get to a certain age?

In my academic paper, I address this question more formally and take a stab at the factors which support or negate the act of everyday dance. But here in my fieldwork diary I summarise it as such:

It is perceived as being too hard. And our society supports them in this thinking for dance as a physical, socio-cultural leisure activity is not promoted as an activity to be prioritised.

Which indeed is a great shame. 

Whilst I am closing the chapter on the fieldwork I have presented here, I doubt that I will ever really close it for myself. I hope to keep going to new and known events and places where people are participating in everyday dance. For if there is anything I have learned from this research, it is that the more tired I am, the more stressed I am, whenever I am feeling the strain of life; I need to go out dancing.  

For I feel that as long as I am out dancing, everything will be ok.

Five Rhythms Dance Night: Unintentional Field Visit (July 24, 2014)

Although I had officially completed all fieldwork site visits for this project in June, I attended a dance event in July that I wanted to write about. 

The event was a Five Rhythms dance drop-in night. Five Rhythms is a dance practice founded by Gabrielle Roth in the 1970s. On the international Five Rhythms website, it is described as, 'a dynamic movement practice - a practice of being in your body - that ignites creativity, connection and community.' The movement practice, or moving mediation as it is also called, is broken down into five elements, or 'waves.' These waves are called flowing, staccato, chaos, lyrical and stillness.  A Five Rhythms teacher guides a group through these waves during the event; encouraging people to get to a point where they are highly attuned to the movement within themselves. The website states that the waves are, 'markers back to a real self, a vulnerable, wild passionate self.'

                                              Youtube clip of Gabrielle Roth explaining Five Rhythms

Before attending the night, I was vaguely aware of Five Rhythms but had no knowledge of its philosophy. I knew it to be an improvisational dance event where you could move however you liked. I had never attended a Five Rhythms event as I had no previous desire to. However my friend Robyn was keen to try it and as she had helped me with my dance research by attending a parents retro disco, I agreed to go along. 

We arrived at the venue, a church hall in South London around 7.20pm. There were already about 30 people scattered throughout, talking and stretching on carpets that had been laid down to cover the concrete floor. The church hall with its arched doorways, high ceiling and ornate glass windows was very atmospheric and I looked forward to dancing in the space.

The church hall 

As we had chosen to attend a drop in night, there was no introduction to the format of the event. The lady who took our class fee (£7 for Robyn and £9 for me - a sliding fee dependent on your income levels) gave us a placard to read which described the five waves. She and told us to look out for the two guides; people who helped facilitate movement throughout the session. I asked about leaving early and she said it would not be looked upon kindly (the session ran from 7.30pm- 9.30pm) as it would be seen as disruptive. On hearing this, I felt slightly trapped. As it was a drop in night, I had assumed there would be a fluidity to the procedures. Also there had been no mention in the advertising that you could not leave early. 

Robyn and I sat down in a alcove section of the church and surveyed the surroundings. Attendants covered a wide demographic; all walks of life ranging from teens to people in their 60s. I saw people walking in wearing business attire. Pensioners. People who looked like mums and dads from my local playgroup. Hippies. It was a real mix, including ethnicities ranging from Afro Caribbean to Oriental to Anglo-Saxon and Hispanic, but to name a few.  Most people once there changed into loose clothing allowing for movement, such as leggings, shorts, t-shirts or exercise wear. The number of males present surprised me. Whilst I do not have the exact numbers, the number of men seemed higher than women. From a rough head count, I estimated approximately 70-90 people in attendance. The high attendance surprised me too as it did not seem like a class but a gathering instead, in the sense of a festival or a club. 

To our left, a laptop with microphone had been set up in the form of a makeshift DJ station.  Robyn went to find out more information about what to expect and she returned with the ground rules of the night. From memory they included:

• No talking in the dance space
• No watching of other people. The emphasis is on participation
• Being mindful of self safety and the safety of others whilst moving about
• No leaving early
• Joining in the group circle at the end

Whilst I logically appreciate the need for some basic ground rules, my initial instinct was to bristle at the contradiction of being an event which was about freedom of self- expression whilst being told how we were going to achieve this by following rules. I was aware of my irrational reaction but the idea that we couldn't leave early and also the large number of people present had thrown me so I was on edge. As it was, Robyn and I had already broken two of the rules by watching people and talking as we waited for the event to start.

Soon enough music started to fill the room, being controlled by a slim main with curly brown hair in a red t shirt and white shorts. He started talking through the microphone about warming up and being in touch with the music and letting it flow through you. I gathered he was the teacher/facilitator but found it hard to understand what he was saying; either because of the uneven acoustics or his whispery tone. Eventually I decided to just watch others (despite the rules) and follow what they were doing. Quickly it became apparent they were moving however they wished to, the quality of movement determined largely by the music being played.

It seemed that many of the attendants were familiar with the format of Five Rhythms for within 20 -30 minutes, many seemed to enter into semi-ecstatic states. There were times when people would interact with one another and move together before breaking off and dancing somewhere else or with someone else. This reminded me a lot of contact improvisation. Some people seemed to be off in other worlds, the expressions on their faces blank. Others like me, were overly watchful and contravening the rules. The movement styles throughout the room varied considerably from frenetic jigging to waving arms in the air to galloping through the space to twig like weaving shapes; the commonality being a lack of restraint.

                                            Five Rhythms clip showing all the waves (taken from Youtube)

By this point the room felt heavy with meaning but whatever that meaning was for others, remained hidden from me. By this time I had been moving for about 30-40 minutes and had not found a way into the movement. I was not enjoying the music which was instrumental and of a trance-like nature, with some percussive mixes thrown in. I found it disconcerting that some men would watch you from the corners of their eyes or sidle up to interact through dance with you. Far from being relaxed and free, this made me feel defensive and self-conscious. I ended up dancing away from other people at the side of the hall, carving out my own space rather than interacting with the majority who were weaving amongst one another in the central hall space. I noticed there were a few others who did this too, a woman close by me and a man who danced all night in the manner of a hyped up Charleston dancer with a big grin on his face. 

As each music mix finished, the teacher whispered something into the microphone which I gathered was the introduction of a new wave given the different tempo of the music that followed. The group would respond accordingly, their movements enlivening or slowing down in response. About ninety minutes in, the percussive music playing built to a crescendo, sending the crowd into a yelping, cavorting, sweaty mass of limbs and faces. Robyn by this time had fully embraced the event and was amidst the heaving crowd, lost in her movement and music. I on the other hand was sitting on the floor, tired and thinking I wanted to leave. I could see that a large majority of dancers were getting some form of release through the movements they were doing, their faces beaming and their bodies becoming increasingly carefree. 

At this point one of the guides materialised in front of me. I knew she was a guide as we had been told they wore yellow armbands. She danced in front of me with a big smile on her face, her eyes never leaving my face. I knew what she wanted and my honest reaction was annoyance and dread. I just wanted to sit quietly but in her role to facilitate my movement mediation she clearly wanted me to do something else. I smiled at her hoping she would move on but she did not. She beckoned me to my feet. Taking the path of least resistance, I stood up and danced with her. I wondered why I couldn't be left to sit still if that was what I wanted. I did not feel I was in a space of real democratic, free expression. 

Dancing half-heartedly I stayed until 9.15pm and decided to slip out. Throughout the 
entire night I had not switched my mind off, which I know impacted my ability to fully engage with the dance. I found this event unique in that I could not switch off from my 'ethnographic note taking persona' as the field was so different to any of the other sites I had visited.  I looked over at Robyn* as I headed out, her face beatific and relaxed as she moved to the music. I was happy for her. It seemed to me that Five Rhythms could really benefit some in providing therapeutic release in the form of dance - like movement. Also that the teacher facilitating plays a significant role in the experience of the event. Robyn and I were left largely to fend for ourselves in this first experience and whilst she embraced it, I did not. However I have decided that after my research has finished I will try Five Rhythms again, with a different facilitator. Like my initial reservations with No Lights No Lycra, I think you should always give these things a second chance. 

*After the event I ask Robyn if she would be willing to fill in a research participant questionnaire even though we had not attended with the intent to engage in fieldwork. She agreed and also emailed me her comparison between this event and the retro disco we had attended together. We had both enjoyed the disco and I was curious to see what the factors were at each event which affected her enjoyment. 

Questionnaire: Research Participants in Fieldwork

Name:

 

Robyn Stocker

Age:

 

34 

Location:

 

London

Profession:

 

DJ & Project Manager

Are you trained in any style of dance? If so, what was the period of training, e.g. 12 years in jazz, one off workshop in salsa:

 

I trained in ballet, contemporary for 6 years and then shorter periods of salsa, samba, bellydancing, street dance and a one off kathak class.

 

Do you regularly partake in any kind of dance activity in your daily life? e.g. Zumba classes, clubbing and so on:

 

I generally dance when I go out with friends, would like to start samba classes again.

How did you feel prior to taking part in this dance research event? What were your expectations?

 

Prior to the 5 Rhythms event I didn’t have any expectations but the experience in fact exceeded my expectations! It was very liberating.

Did you feel comfortable dancing at the event? Why? Why not?

 

I did straight away because I didn’t feel judged by anyone, the nature of the event is such that people turn up specifically to express themselves through dance. No drugs and alcohol or spectating. The ground rules made it very clear that it was a meditative and respectful space and that the idea is full acceptance of other participants.

 

Please feedback your thoughts about the following at the dance event you attended:

The venue:

 

Great venue, I love churches so it set a very soothing scene.

The music:

 

The music progressed from meditative music to tribal beats and deep house sounds. In fact very close to my taste in music, very trance-like.

The other people at the event:

 

Very respectful and also heart-warming, if somewhat amusing. People really let loose… women wailing, men skipping, strangers hugging. But for me the best part was being a part of connection with others and being able to pickup the energy and vibrations of others through the movement. Very intuitive and pure.

The clothing worn at the event:

 

I enjoyed being able to wear something comfortable rather than to present myself attractively like in some environments.

The atmosphere:

 

Great energy, the only thing I wasn’t so keen on was the sweat and the sweaty smells!! Natural but not particularly appealing. It was because people allowed themselves to put their full energy into it and it was 30 degrees!!

The dancing that happened at the event:

 

Beautiful. It may have looked strange from the outside but participating felt very natural and in tune, also liberating. I also didn’t have a judgment on who was a good dancer and who wasn’t because everyone was there to get in touch with their natural rhythm.

The timing of the event (was it too early? Did it go on for too long?):

 

It was quite long because at one point I got tired and had to stop, but I suppose for the transition of energy states to occur, it needed that length of time. For me, slightly shorter would be better. Good time of the day though. Nice to see the transition from sunset to candlelight.

The cost:

 

Nice that it was based on trust and that you contribute the level you can afford, from £7 upwards.

How would you describe the way you danced at the event?

 

I danced completely freely and did not feel the need to stop because I was so energised by being in tune with my natural rhythm. I think if you don’t allow yourself to get fully into it, then it’s not enjoyable. It has to be 100% participation and willingness to participate.

Would you attend this event again? Why ? Why not?

 

Yes for sure, I find it a great release and energiser, even if it totally wiped me physically from the sheer intensity of the exercise.

Below is Robyn's comparison of the Five Rhythms night to the parents retro disco night:

I thought that the 5 rhythms was more engaging because everyone was participating. It was a more spiritual and intense experience as people got in touch with their core selves and there was no need to judge anyone (even though judgements inadvertently flew around my head anyway, they were quicker to pass). 

The parents disco also had a warm atmosphere but it was much less intense and deep, more observational and entertaining. In a way, it was liberating because I didn't feel the need to worry about how I looked or was perceived and didn't require me to face my inner self in quite the same way, but it wasn't a meditative environment. Less therapeutic, more relaxing in a light and fun sense.

So both were fun, enjoyable and relaxing but in very different ways and on very different levels. I also felt with the 5 rhythms that I belonged more because it felt like a part of a movement whereas the kids disco was more me enjoying participating from an outsider perspective

  

Fieldwork Diary Entry (July 7, 2014)

I have decided to bring my field work to a close, albeit reluctantly, in order to start the process of tying everything up.

I say reluctantly for I want to go out dancing more than ever. Like many of the people within my research, I had allowed it to fall aside as a priority.  Forcing myself to go out dancing, for the purposes of this fieldwork research has reminded me how important it is to flex the everyday dance muscle and keep it working.  As Joanna Zawadzka said in our interview 

It’s so strange that, as you were saying it [dancing] should be second nature, like walking [and] it’s not and it’s so sad that we are human beings, we've somehow isolated dancing to be something that has to be learnt so well. It’s like practising a language. Sometimes you’re embarrassed to speak another language until you've perfected how you pronounce it and I think that dancing can be the same.

The benefits of going out dancing are numerous. But for me it comes down to one thing.

A enjoyable session of spontaneous social dancing gives me a unique sense of well-being.  

It's not something that always happens when out dancing and it's not something that can be controlled. It either happens or it doesn't.

But when it does, it really is for me, the ultimate high.

It's a high that is cumulative and resonates through into all areas of my life. It stays on and magnifies in effect; benefitting relationships, outlook, physical and emotional health, creativity. It is holistic in its effect upon me and my life.

That's why I have decided that as tough as it is with work, kids, energy, time, no-one to go dancing with, crappy clubs, ad nauseum; I want to ensure that I go out dancing regularly. I have found through my research that there are places for people of my age to go and there is no real reason not to go apart from not wanting to make the effort. Every other barrier is just perception.

My husband asked me after all this research, why do I think people don't go out dancing as much anymore when they enter a certain stage of life.

I started citing all the reasons I had been given and all the trends shown.  Why for people in our age demographic, going to the gym is easier. Going out to dinner is easier. Seeing a film is easier.

And then I said this.

I think that there is an unknown element to going out to dance freestyle. You really cannot predict what dancing is going to happen or how you are going to feel. You have to expose yourself on a certain level in order to be able to get into it and enjoy it. It can be a difficult thing to do, especially when you have fallen out of the habit and also have no-one to go with. Even with the best will in the world, it can require a lot of effort. I love going out dancing and even I barely went before all this research forced me out there again.

I look around at my age demographic and everyone is knackered. They are tired from work, looking after property and other material belongings, rearing families, health issues, financial pressures, aging parents and just the rigmarole of day to day life.

But you know what? It isn't going to get any better.

If you are knackered, do a bit less of this
(Image taken from here)

It doesn't make sense to me that at a period in our lives when we need all the benefits that dancing can provide the most, we do it the least.

And a bit more of this
(Image taken from here)

I don't have any more answers than when I first started this research. Only a stronger conviction of the importance of incorporating everyday dance into everyday life.

Fieldwork Diary Entry (July 5, 2014)

As mentioned in one of my earlier posts, the reason that everyday dance interests me is because it is a democratic dance type. It requires no training, almost everyone has the ability to do it and in fact, being a trained dancer or dance professional can work against you when dancing this way. 

I interviewed several dance professionals as part of my research and all of them, bar one agreed that they danced less freely and more self-consciously on a social dance floor as a result of their training. For myself, this is definitely the case and I usually have to overcome self-consciousness before enjoying everyday dance. In the academic paper, I discuss that the self- consciousness and anxiety that many non -trained dancers have to overcome in order to enjoy everyday dancing, is also experienced by many trained dance professionals  

In a  recent Guardian article, dancer and choreographer, Akram Khan discussed how the formation of his own company put an end to his everyday dancing; that is until the birth of his daughter:

Dancer/choreographer Akram Khan used to do that: he won competitions dancing to Michael Jackson as a child, and would go clubbing as a young man. But since forming his company in 2000, that pretty much stopped. He remembers acutely a moment after a 2005 performance of the duet Zero Degrees, where he was witness to the rare sight of fellow dancer/choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui freestyling at a party. "I was horrified!" remembers Khan, "because he was just so free. And I was so self-conscious that I felt naked – more naked than I would on stage, because there are no rules. Maybe I have a problem with thinking too much about movement." The birth of Khan's daughter last year put some fun and funk back into his feet. "Now I dance with her every morning in my living room," he says. "We put on Japanese nursery music – and Don't Stop Till You Get Enough. She has kind of freed me up. I can let go more because I'm relating to a child. Maybe I wouldn't even mind dancing around in public – as long as she was with me."

It's a common sentiment that children can make all the difference when it comes to self-consciousness in adults when dancing, as discussed in my Monski Mouse post.

How professional dancers freestyle at home. Just like everyone else
Image courtesy of http://scientific-culture.blogspot.co.uk/

During our interview, Gideon Obarzanek discussed why he thought some trained dancers have this self -consciousness when it comes to everyday dance:

They’re very driven and they are very self-conscious and you can see that in their social dances. Because it’s what they do. It’s their instrument. So for them social dancing is never like social dancing on a person who is not a professional dancer because they cannot eliminate, they cannot take away that aspect of their identity and how they value themselves. About being a professional dancer. They are also dancers who do all of that who completely let that go and don’t have that kind of have an issue

Another dancer in the Guardian article, Jen Irons explained that this hurdle experienced by some dance professionals is perhaps because:

For many of us, I think the original attraction to dancing was that if felt good. After years of training and having movement dissected, criticised and analysed, we have less connection to that. In fact, in performance, we are told that it is self-indulgent to do so.

It is striking that many of the dancers juxtapose everyday dance as being pleasurable, fun and letting go in comparison with their professional dancing which is more about analysis and attention to detail.

Just goes to show that everyday dance can be a release for everyone, professional dancers included.

So Blue - Louise Lecavalier - Southbank Centre (July 2, 2014)

I've been going to see a lot of dance this year and last night I went to see Louise Lecavalier perform her first choreographic work, So Blue at the Southbank Centre

I'm a big advocate of professional dancers who are older than thirty. Especially female dance artists. There aren't that many of them around. So when they perform, I go. 

Louise Lecavalier
Image courtesy of http://www.ottawacitizen.com/

For So Blue, Lecavalier used what she calls 'spontaneous movements' (aka 'everyday') as foundations within the choreography to expose, 'something true and beyond our control.'* She discussed this during the post show Q & A where she said she wanted to use movements that were less 'dancerly' as she feels that such movements can sometimes alienate an audience.  The repetitive nature of Lecavalier's 'everyday movements' which form the basis of this work is something which I discuss in my academic essay; that of spontaneous everyday dance as being rooted in repetitive, performative movements.

Throughout the hour long set, I marvelled at how she turned these 'everyday' motions inside out, so that they became enhanced and compulsive to watch. It was as if she was magnifying the ridiculousness, rhythm and odd beauty of the random gestures that proliferate our lives. The way Lecavalier tied all these motions together in pulsating alignment alongside a great score and lighting was testament to her skill and experience. 

I think I held my breath for the whole hour. 

                   Southbank Centre promotional clip from Youtube

Afterwards, Louise and her fellow dancer, Frederic Tavernini sat for a post show Q & A, chaired by dance critic, Donald Hutera. One particular question asked by an audience member made me wish I had an audio recorder on me. Instead the following is written from memory:

Guy: 

Some of the choreography in the show looked really specific and worked on, whilst there where other moments where you two looked really casual and fierce. Like you were randomly dancing at a club, which I liked. How much time did you two go out dancing at clubs to pick up those moves, as opposed to how much time you spent in the studio rehearsing?

LL: 

Well I don't really have the time go to clubs anymore. I'm a mother, I have kids now so I don't go out that much to dance at clubs. I used to. But I also don't need to because I already have the movement.  It's in me. We all have it, it's in all of us. People think that if they go to a club, they'll pick up the movement but you don't need to go to a club. You just need a bit of space anywhere to move as it's already in you.

It was a great answer and instantly made me think of all the people throughout my research who told me that they don't 'go' dancing anymore.

She's right though isn't she? We don't need to 'go' to the dance to find it. It's already here.

Inside us.

* Taken from show guide