Dancing at Blake

Today at James Hubert Blake High School in Silver Spring, we performed Unmoored for dance students from various high schools in the region. The audience's enthusiasm was unmistakable and I was eager to see their faces by the end of the show.

The house lights went up and we sat along the edge of the stage for a talk-back question-and-answer session. There were about four high school dance classes present - of an audience of about 300, no more than twenty were boys. I suppose this is not something that should surprise anyone - when I was in high school, our dance classes were monopolized by girls.

But this time, I got to thinking. Why is something as natural and vital as dancing still somewhat a gender-biased activity? When will our society value the indirect, inconclusive movement characteristic of dance as much as it values the direct, purposeful, goal-oriented movement of sports? We celebrate the triumphs made over the last few decades in providing as many athletic opportunities to girls as we do for boys. But why do we not, as a society, encourage the reverse; encourage our boys to take dance classes and explore movement from a different perspective?

We all have bodies, and we are all responsible to learn as much about them as we do about our minds, our personalities, our unique perspectives. I hope in our lifetimes, we will see this bridge crossed. Because we could always use more bodies on the dance floor.