Getting My Hands Dirty With The Arts

USC offers many opportunities for students to explore their interests and passions. One of these is the Visions and Voices USC Arts and Humanities Initiative – Get Your Hands Dirty With The Arts! – a day long event with a variety of hands-on workshops in art, photography, theater, dance, music, film, and interactive media.

I decided to sign up for a swing dancing workshop.

From the get go I knew swing dancing was going to be a challenge: I’m not coordinated or rhythmically talented, at all. I get caught up trying to be perfect that my movements end up being rigid. I struggle with fluidity and letting go, and the general thought of being in close quarters with a complete stranger is unnerving.
 
As soon as I walked into the room, I knew it was going to be an interesting day. There were about 30 women and 8 men. The instructor tried to evenly spread the men out but it didn’t help, even when he had us switch partners. Most of the women, including myself, ended up dancing alone, awkwardly holding our imaginary partners and glancing back to our instructor to see if we were getting it right.
 
I had also forgotten to wear my glasses and so that was another struggle; everything was a blurry landscape. It was also a challenge to keep up; there were so many moves crammed into a one hour lesson. When I was barely learning one part of the dance, the instructor was already moving onto the next.
 
The one thing I wished was that we had danced to actual jazz music. When I think of swing dancing, the first thing that comes to mind is high energy and living in the moment. When the instructor played the same country song over and over, I was very confused. I wasn’t really feeling the swing or jive I thought I would. I was under the impression lively swing music was what inspired the dance.
 
Despite those setbacks, it was still a fun experience. The few times I had a partner, I found it was hard to trust him and let him lead me. It was frustrating because for as much as I kept telling myself to let him lead, I would end up leading myself, which led to both of us bumping into each other or getting off beat.
 
This whole experience made me realize how trust and communication was essential to being a successful dance partner. He had to communicate where he wanted me to go with his body language, and I had to trust him and go with it. By the end of the class, I had sort of gotten the hang of it.
 
I also learned I had to let go of my self-consciousness and have fun with it. I would over think it and get frustrated that I wasn’t doing it right the first time. I needed to just get over it and move on. Easier said than done but this was a good experience to bring attention to that.
 
I think dance is one of those arts I would rather watch than do. However, it’s not until I actually danced that I started to understand and appreciate what it takes to be a great dancer. To me, the art of dancing is shutting off your brain and letting your body do the thinking.

I’m glad USC offers programs like this. It’s good to explore art and be creative, so if you have a chance to sign up next year, do it!