I’ve been going to graduate school (for teaching) and performing as Von Rothbart in Swan Lake. This has kept me pretty busy. One of my professors suggested I write a short response to a book that we read, “Releasing The Imagination” by Maxine Greene. She suggested that I relate my experience rehearsing for and performing Swan Lake, as well as my experience learning dance, to the book. I thought I would post the short response here for anyone who might be interested.
Before I started to study ballet, I imagined myself as a successful dancer. I imagined being complemented on the part I played. I imagined responding “Thank you, I worked very hard” and I imagined I would be proud. That vague image that I had a little over 3 years ago is now a reality. It took a lot of imagination to go from an untrained dancer who was working on cargo ships and had only seen a ballet once, in a society where men aren’t normally seen as ballet dancers, to a dancer who was successful and proud, and could express something to a large audience.
Learning to dance and taking part in Swan Lake could not be done without imagination. Imagination helps us to grow, to connect, and to experience. In my experiences, dance is closely tied with imagination.
Imagination helps us to grow as people. It provides the vision that is needed to bring together many ideas. Similar to how imagination can help many ideas come together to create a better society, many ideas had to come together to make Swan Lake happen. Imagination also helps us grow as individuals.
Dance and imagination work together to help me do more. I use dance to express things that I can’t easily express with words, and imagination is something that can’t easily be expressed in words. Becoming a dancer requires imagination. I need to be able to imagine the dancer that I could become. Growing is a process fed by imagination. Even just becoming a dancer requires imagination. As Maxine Greene (1995) said:
A young person trying to become a ballet dancers is affected in her or his conception of a life in dance by the way those immediately around her or him in childhood talked about such a choice as worthy or impractical, as romantic or somehow suspect. (p. 20)
I had to use my imagination to overcome the limited perceptions I learned from people around me. I remember watching television shows that laughed at males as they tried to learn dance. I remember taking my girlfriend to see The Nutcracker when I was 16. Her father ostracized me and told me I was gay because I went to the ballet. I needed imagination to see beyond the limited views around me.
Imagination and dance create connections. These connections are created with the characters we play, with other dancers, and with the audience we perform for. To learn Swan Lake, I had to become a character. I had to believe I was the character. Through imagination I had to connect my emotions with the characters. Without my use of imagination, the audience’s imagination would not have been accessed.
Maxine Green (1995) stated that “of all our cognitive capacities, imagination is the one that permits us to give credence to alternative realities” (p. 3). We move beyond the assumed and limited views, to something more. By providing “occasions for significant encounters with works of art, we have to combat… ‘thoughtlessness’” (p. 125). Watching dance produces imagination. The audience connects with the dancers to imagine alternative realities. I am struck by how strongly both adults and children respond to watching Swan Lake. Parents comment to me how engaged their children were, and I think that we all begin to reminisce what it must be like to imagine so deeply. Children should be exposed to dance and art in order to provide experiences to engage their imagination.
According to Maxine Greene (1995), “the arts provide new perspectives on the lived world” (p. 4). Art and dance promote imagination which promotes a disconnection with our limited views on the world, as well as a connection to others in this world. This connection develops empathy and compassion for others. It took a lot of hard work for me to become a dancer, but it took even more imagination.
More greatness to come at a more regular schedule. I am looking forward to summer!
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Great post, and thanks for the shoutout
Glad to see you posting again – they have been missed. Busy times… Summer. Vacation. Soon. 
Hang in there! H
I’m a daydreamer, so imagination is a place where I live much of the time….
I loved this post. I think we tend to not think about and process things that are our “magic”, but it can be helpful to do so. We can then focus it much better.
Hope all is going well with Swan Lake–I’m sure you are marvelous.
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