Art and the Community: Breaking the Aesthetic of Disempowerment

Art and the Community: Breaking the Aesthetic of

DisempowermentA presentation by Sabrina Boyer

Prepared by Dr. Kay Picart

Aims

• to show the importance of context and intent over form and content

• to show dance as a mediator between nature, the self and the community

• to illustrate individual growth through community involvement

Review Questions

• What is “monetarist materialism?”• According to Christine Lomas, it “seeks to

control and shape culture and cultural processes, denying our human capacity to interact with the natural world.”

• Why is this important to change?

Review Question

• Lomas quotes Simpson in saying that the community is the life-blood of social life, a set of conditioned emotions which an individual feels towards the surrounding world and his fellows. Communities are empowered by individuals.

• Do you agree or disagree?

Discussion Question

• How does dance offer the individuals in the community dance group Jabadao a sense of self fulfillment and feelings of achievement?

Review Question

• According to Lomas, what is an “animateur?”

• Britain defines one as “a professional community dance and mime activist working in a community context whose post was funded either wholly or in part by public arts subsidy.

Review Question

• What two approaches do animateurs use in order to teach dance within a community?

Discussion Questions

• Both approaches emphasize technique--What does Lomas say about teaching conventional techniques?

Review Question

• In what 3 ways is community dance flawed?

• Who shapes our taste in terms of Dance Art.

Inclusion vs Exclusion

• How does a theatrical aesthetic limit our capacity to view dance?

• What happens when the main emphasis on the dance is the “end product?”

Discussion Questions

• How does dance improvisation coincide with Lomas’ point of cultural and natural cohesion in dance?

Discussion Questions

• Could improvisation be seen as a form of technical study?

• Do movements speak louder than words?

Discussion Question

• By using experiences, sensations, and memories to create random movements in dance, do you think dance improvisation could be seen as virtual reality?

• Instead of focussing on “dancing well” and the “end product,” do you think members result in better involvement and responsiveness?

Concluding Question

• Should society value professional dance over community dance similar to the dance group Jabadao, in which Lomas draws many of her arguments from? Why or why not?

Lomas, Christine. Art and the Community: Breaking the Aesthetic of Disempowerment. Dance, Power

and Difference Sherry P. Shapiro, Editor, 1998. 149-

169.