Amy Benck
SOC 385
Blog #10: Dance as Discipline of the Body and Disciplined by Space
This week one of the concepts we focused on was Foucault’s discussion of discipline, and how he distinguished between disciplinary power and regulatory power. I am going to focus this blog post on the idea of self discipline, also thought of as self-policing, as we learned about in class. Having danced for the majority of my life (that is, from about age five to age 18), I have extensive experience with the type of control and routine that is exhibited in the dance classroom.
The basic dance classroom has floor to ceiling mirrors on at least one wall, and bars which can either be on the walls, or they may be free standing and moveable. These are meant for the dancers to hold onto during what is called ‘bar work’ or warming up. For the beginning of each ballet class students find a place at the bar and do particular exercises that warm up the dancers’ bodies and stretch certain muscles, as well as practice certain basic and routine moves. The time at the bar is really meant to be a time to warm up muscles, practice skills, and strengthen the muscles. The dancers then move to the ‘center,’ which is literally just to the middle of the room, and spread out so each dancer has room to freely move. During this time the dancers practice more skills, especially of balance, since they are no longer at the bar and hence have to use their core muscles to support them, as well as practice more mobile dance routines. After this work is complete, the dancers practice their dance, which is a short (about three minutes) choreographed routine that goes with music. At the very end of class, the dancers are lead through a brief cool down period to help relax their muscles and lower their heart rate.
In general, but also specifically as the bar, dancers are training and using only individual parts of their bodies to practice certain moves and skills within ballet, hence there is a scale of control. There is also a designated space for each activity performed, such as the bar, the center, as well as specific locations within the center when the dancers are performing and practicing the dance. These specific spots which each dancer has to learn and move through while performing and practicing the dance are called formations; each formation eventually morphs into a new formation, so dancers technically have several spots within the room that they can call their own, depending on which formation they are in when performing and practicing the dance.
This can be easily become very confusing though, because I remember personally having trouble when our dance teacher would have us ‘face the back’ which means literally shifting our attention so that we perform and practice the entire dance facing the opposite direction of the mirrors. Though this should not actually change how the dance is performed, because there is still the same amount of space, making this one small change had the potential to seriously confuse dancers because they had become accustomed to being located in a particular area of the room for different formations of the dance, and facing the complete opposite direction completely changes where those spots for each dancer are. In order to prepare for and cope with this change, I would often have to ‘run through’ the dance, particular the formations, in my head so that I would remember, no matter what the space was (whether we were simply facing the back of the room or actually on stage), where my spots in each formation were.
Lastly, each class was designated a certain room to be in, and so when the dance class would have to move to another room, that would also be confusing as the space is different. This usually happened when recital was nearing, classes would share their dances with each other, and they would all have to move to one room, meaning that only one class would be in their usual room.
In these ways, dancers are constantly aware of the space they are allotted and how they are using that space as well as how they are using their bodies in context of the actions they are performing. The dancers could decide to not perform their part of the dance correctly by placing themselves in the wrong spots for each formation, or they could attempt to do their bar work in the center, but they do not because they self-discipline. The dancers could also carelessly move through the dance, not holding their muscles correctly for the action they are performing, but they do not.
SOC 385
Blog #10: Dance as Discipline of the Body and Disciplined by Space
This week one of the concepts we focused on was Foucault’s discussion of discipline, and how he distinguished between disciplinary power and regulatory power. I am going to focus this blog post on the idea of self discipline, also thought of as self-policing, as we learned about in class. Having danced for the majority of my life (that is, from about age five to age 18), I have extensive experience with the type of control and routine that is exhibited in the dance classroom.
The basic dance classroom has floor to ceiling mirrors on at least one wall, and bars which can either be on the walls, or they may be free standing and moveable. These are meant for the dancers to hold onto during what is called ‘bar work’ or warming up. For the beginning of each ballet class students find a place at the bar and do particular exercises that warm up the dancers’ bodies and stretch certain muscles, as well as practice certain basic and routine moves. The time at the bar is really meant to be a time to warm up muscles, practice skills, and strengthen the muscles. The dancers then move to the ‘center,’ which is literally just to the middle of the room, and spread out so each dancer has room to freely move. During this time the dancers practice more skills, especially of balance, since they are no longer at the bar and hence have to use their core muscles to support them, as well as practice more mobile dance routines. After this work is complete, the dancers practice their dance, which is a short (about three minutes) choreographed routine that goes with music. At the very end of class, the dancers are lead through a brief cool down period to help relax their muscles and lower their heart rate.
In general, but also specifically as the bar, dancers are training and using only individual parts of their bodies to practice certain moves and skills within ballet, hence there is a scale of control. There is also a designated space for each activity performed, such as the bar, the center, as well as specific locations within the center when the dancers are performing and practicing the dance. These specific spots which each dancer has to learn and move through while performing and practicing the dance are called formations; each formation eventually morphs into a new formation, so dancers technically have several spots within the room that they can call their own, depending on which formation they are in when performing and practicing the dance.
This can be easily become very confusing though, because I remember personally having trouble when our dance teacher would have us ‘face the back’ which means literally shifting our attention so that we perform and practice the entire dance facing the opposite direction of the mirrors. Though this should not actually change how the dance is performed, because there is still the same amount of space, making this one small change had the potential to seriously confuse dancers because they had become accustomed to being located in a particular area of the room for different formations of the dance, and facing the complete opposite direction completely changes where those spots for each dancer are. In order to prepare for and cope with this change, I would often have to ‘run through’ the dance, particular the formations, in my head so that I would remember, no matter what the space was (whether we were simply facing the back of the room or actually on stage), where my spots in each formation were.
Lastly, each class was designated a certain room to be in, and so when the dance class would have to move to another room, that would also be confusing as the space is different. This usually happened when recital was nearing, classes would share their dances with each other, and they would all have to move to one room, meaning that only one class would be in their usual room.
In these ways, dancers are constantly aware of the space they are allotted and how they are using that space as well as how they are using their bodies in context of the actions they are performing. The dancers could decide to not perform their part of the dance correctly by placing themselves in the wrong spots for each formation, or they could attempt to do their bar work in the center, but they do not because they self-discipline. The dancers could also carelessly move through the dance, not holding their muscles correctly for the action they are performing, but they do not.