A dancer in the 21st anniversary season of L'Acadco expreses herself through facial expressions and body movements.

Tanya Batson-Savage, Freelance Writer

For some, dancing is about looking pretty or sexy, or if you are one of the supposed 'bad men' to be glorified in your villainy, it can be about not dancing so that you look the epitome of deadly cool.

But for some choreographers dance is about the message in the movement, creating an understanding of poetry in motion.

When one looks behind the seeming madness that had the contemporary dancehall scene in its grips as it grabbed every possible movement and labelled it a dance, movement is quite serious business that goes well beyond movement just for the sake of itself.

African expression

As with drama, dance theatre often takes on the task of playing Snow White's stepmother and approaching the mirror to explore ideas of gender, politics and identity.

So, whether the dreams of being a dancer were born from watching figures in fluffy tutus or seeing writhing, almost magically moving, bodies on the streetside, when dance moves on to the stage it can often be about much more than movement and rhythm.

L'Antoinette Stines of L'acadco argues that exploring issues through dance is a part of African artistic expression.

"For me, the European concept of dance is to show that I can extend a leg, to show I can make geometric shapes and be on show," she said. "For me, the concept of African dance is to engage the audience with political issues and engage the audience with their society."

To Stines, dance's role as a mirror image is very important. "You are to make the people feel that they are looking at themselves," she said. "Almost for me it is a waste of time to just go up on stage and make pretty steps," she continued.

More than movement

Monika Lawrence, founder and artistic director of the Stella Maris Dance Ensemble, is quite in agreement with this function of dance, believing the true beauty of the art is to be found in more than the grace of movement.

She argues that it is very important that choreographers and dancers understand that there is message behind the music and attempt to bring this to light.

"I believe that the art (dance) is to educate," says Lawrence. "I look at it as text in motion."

She explains that dance therefore ought to educate as well as further cement our identity, while providing something thought-provoking for the audience to sit through.

Professor Rex Nettleford argues that using dance to explore deep issues is intrinsic to the development of modern Jamaican dance, coming out of a post-colonial situation. As we bade cheerio to English rule, expressing our own identity and plunging into the issues which plagued us were important to artists. Indeed, both Lawrence and Nettleford point to our history and its impact on our identity.

"When I was young, I was a subject of his majesty and later her majesty, and a subject of the British colony," Nettleford explained. As such, the arts became an important part of self-determination.

"The arts are points of power which, in fact, provide the individual artist or groups of artists with a space which is beyond the oppressor," Nettleford said.

Lawrence concurs. "The human body is a key to expression that is out of the reach of the oppressor," she said. "They could not take away our way of expressing ourselves."

Contemporary issues

Of course, dance also often tackles the contemporary world as well. So, in the National Dance Theatre Company's last season, 'Katrina' was among the issues explored.

According to Nettleford, the dance's choreographer, he used the dance to explore the issue of black invisibility.

Nettleford believes, however, that not enough young choreographers are tackling this element of dance and exploring issues of power and identity on the stage.

He notes that someone such as Shelly-Ann Maxwell separates herself from the upcoming cadre of choreographers. He points to her piece, Garvey Lives, which looks at the impact of Marcus Garvey's philosophies.

Maxwell has also delved into gender-related issues. In this year's staging of The Vagina Monologues at the Philip Sherlock Centre For the Creative Arts, UWI, Mona, her dance explored female freedom, looking at a woman's emancipation from the hijab as a metaphorical expression of freedom.

Neila Ebanks' choreography was also included in that V-Day performance, and her body contorted in the rendering of atrocities against woman, while Nadean Rawlins read about violence against women in today's world.

Doom and gloom

Yet, some find that there may well be some issues that are too macabre to dance about.

Lawrence maintains this point and argues that one can look toward the humour in a situation rather than dwelling on the doom and gloom.

However, Stines is quite willing to step into the breach that travesties leave on the society, without using humour to soften the blow. She points to her portrayal of the massacre of the 'Braeton Seven', but noted that she received much criticism for this.

Stines is not alone in wishing to explore the violence in today's society. In the 2005 staging of 'Physical Labrish', the dance show featuring the works of the tutors of the School of Dance at the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts, Nicholeen De Grasse pointed fingers at those mothers who nourish criminals.

So, though some might find violence too daunting to explore, a look at the dances coming out of the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission's festival of dance points out that the young are quite concerned with the issue. Over the past few years several dance skits and longer dramatic pieces have chosen to explore violence.

Continued Exploration

Nettleford maintains that the exploration of issues is quite pivotal to the continued success of modern Jamaican dance.

He notes that our creative expressions have pointed to the strength of the tangled grass roots which have spread their influence well beyond the poverty line.

"We, our people, the people from below, are capable of influence," he said. He argues that exploring issues is significant to dance practitioners becoming agents of change.

"They (choreographers) must use their intellect and their imagination," he said. "It is not enough to be minstrels."