Kourtney RentzDance Philosophy and Goals Paper Assignment

If you were to ask me my definition of dance, my definition would have been different at

different stages in my life. Throughout the years, dance has been many things to me. It started off

as just something fun to do. Then it became discipline, hard work, dedication, pain, love,

exercise, a confidence builder, a way to express my feelings, a way to escape the world, a

therapy, a way to use my creativity, a way to connect and serve others, an education and so many

other things. If you were to ask me what my definition of dance was right now, those are all the

things it would be. Dance has shaped me into the person I am. Dance is my life. “To dance is to

live.” (Isadora Duncan). That is my philosophy of dance.

“To dance is to live.” I really like this quote because I really believe that dance is life.

Everything that I have learned from dance is something that I can apply to every aspect of my

life whether physical, emotional, or even spiritual.

During this semester, we read Martha Graham’s “I Am a Dancer” and I loved it. Her

philosophy of what dance is to her was a really accurate way of putting my feelings of what

dance is to me into words. At the beginning of this reading, Martha Graham states “I believe that

we learn by practice. Whether it means to learn to dance by practicing dancing or to learn to live

by practicing living.” She goes on to say that practicing is something that is necessary to become

successful in anything that we do and that by striving to become successful we become, in a way,

“an athlete of God.” I really agree with these words. I have heard many girls in dance say “oh I

can fake those steps”. I don’t think that dance is something that can be “faked”. It is something

that takes hard work and dedication. Martha Graham repeats several times in this reading that

ambition is not enough to be successful, “necessity is everything.” We need more than just to

want to do something. We need to feel like it is something that is necessary to do. Martha

Graham says that she did not choose to be a dancer but that she was chosen to be a dancer. This

is something I believe has happened to me. It is something that I need. This is why for me, it is a

necessity to practice and involve dance in everything in my life.

I have connected to dance through many different ways over my dance career. As a

performer, I have been performing since I was three years old and I cannot get away from it.

Performing is one of the biggest reasons why I dance. It is the best way for me to show the world

who I really am when words cannot quite explain me. This is when I get to connect to the

audience and is where my confidence grows the most. It feels good when you have a whole room

full of people clap for the things that you have accomplished. It is a proud moment for a

performer.

As a creator of dance, I have also had some experience in it. I started creating when I

started to learn how to do my first plié but when it really became a part of me was when I was

about 11 years old and I was advanced into the next class with the “big girls”. My teacher, Renae

Sorenson, taught me my first improvisatory class. She taught us how to create, be original, and

be confident in what we created much like the popular quote, “Dance like no one is watching” by

William Purkey. She taught us to practice creating constantly. Now, every time a song comes on

or I am riding in the car, I am constantly creating a dance in my head. This practice of creating

has helped me in my choreographic works which started with my high school dance team and

has grown to choreographing for several different dance teams in Utah since I was 15 years old.

Renae was the most inspiring teacher I have ever had and has taught me not only the lessons

pertaining to dance, but how to apply the things I learn to every part of my life. Because of

dance, I feel confident being able to use my creativity to any situation I am given.

Something else I have been connected to through dance is my love for teaching. I started

off being a teaching assistant when I was around 13 years old and started teaching my own

classes at 15. I love teaching because I get to use the things that I have learned from my teacher,

share them with others, and watch people grow just as I did. One of the biggest things that I want

to teach my students is how to use dance in their lives and not just in dance class. My teacher

used to always tell us, “don’t dance hard, dance smart”, and I still say that to myself every day.

During my research, I found an article by Scott F. Martin, an Arts educator who said, “I focus on

producing thinking dancers, not simply moving bodies.” I want my dancers to grow intellectually

as well as physically. Nothing is as satisfying to me, than looking back over a year or even a

month of teaching a student and seeing how much they have improved not just their dancing, but

their life. I love seeing the positive effects that dance has on people and knowing that I was a part

of that growth. Teaching is something that I wish to continue in my life because I know that my

love and satisfaction from it will only continue to grow as my students grow. Teaching has also

taught me many things like professionalism and patience. I have had to learn as a teacher how to

write lesson plans, meet deadlines, solve problems, critique students, give positive feedback,

make students feel cared for and even how to professionally deal with parents who have

concerns for their children. I feel like this is a skill that will help me immensely in the dance

world as well as in the social world around us. Teaching has taught me to work with people

successfully and to be a better problem solver.

Dance is something that I will always have in my life, whether it is by performing,

teaching, or being a future parent of a dancer. Dance has had such a positive influence in my life

and I would love for that gift to be shared with my future children. Something I would do as a

parent is to be supportive in what my children want to do artistically and to always show them

that I will have faith that they can do anything that they apply themselves to. As a dancer and

teacher, I have seen both supportive and unsupportive parents of children and have seen the

different impacts that it has on the children and their confidence level. My dance teacher used to

always tell us that everything we do is 90% psychological power and 10% physical ability. When

we believed that we could do something, it was much more likely that we would be able to do it.

When others tell us that we are capable of doing things, especially our parents, we can have an

even healthier vision of the things we can do.

I hope that I can continue to contribute to the dance world as a dancer, teacher and maybe

one day a studio owner. I want to give children the drive that I had to be a smart, dedicated

dancer. I also want to make it my goal to give children who can’t financially afford dance the

opportunity to. Growing up, my home was not always financially stable and there were several

times that my family just could not afford to pay for dance lessons. However, my wonderful

teacher who I aspire to be like, took me in and would give me jobs like cleaning the mirrors after

class or assisting in the younger classes, to help pay for my tuition because she knew that I really

had the desire and “necessity” to dance. She will never know just how much that changed my life

and made me who I am today. I hope that I will have the ability to do the same for other children.

Sometimes dance just chooses people, just like dance chose Martha Graham. There is no price

for what dance can do for a person.

My philosophy of dance is the same philosophy I have for life. It gives you purpose,

something to work for and be proud of. It is a way to express who you are and at the same time,

something that can shape you into the person that you will be. I dance because it is a necessity to

my life. It gives me purpose, something to work for and be proud of. It is what I have a passion

for and is something I can share with others.

Citations

Belilove, Lori. "About Isadora Duncan." About Isadora Duncan. Isadora Duncan Dance

Foundation, 2005. Web. 03 Dec. 2012.

Carter, Alexandra. "I Am a Dancer." The Routledge Dance Studies Reader. London: Routledge,

1998. N. pag. Print.

Martin, Scott F. "Philosophy of Dance Education." Scottmartindesign. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Dec.

2012.

Purkey, William. "You've Gotta Dance like There's Nobody Watching." Goodreads. N.p., n.d.

Web. 03 Dec. 2012.