Today was an extremely successful first movement based session of PALETTE in Motion. The class began with a brief introduction in which all participants sat in a circle. Sitting in a circle was a great way to ease everyone into the program because it automatically developed a sense of equality and community between senior, participant, dancer, and coordinator. From there, Melanie led us through a warm up that explored all parts of the body from the muscles in the face to grounding down through our legs. It was interesting to see the progression of the class; how everyone started out reserved and as time went on, personalities shined through. Sharing movement with a group of people who do not “study” dance was extremely humbling.
As our creative hats turned on, we began some small gestural improvisation. This is something that I, as a dancer, don’t have to think about but impulse brings me there. However, as I examined the people around me, I realized that mostly everyone else was hesitant or embarrassed to create a movement gesture. The classed progressed through a series of movement exploration activities such as mirroring and sharing eye contact while spelling your name through your body. I realized that by creating movement in a group atmosphere, we were all embarking on a journey of discovery together. We were all people given the permission to put aside judgment, and move freely based on impulse. We were all dancers.
Rachel Stanislawczyk, student in Dance
The first class today was a bit different than I had expected; I was thinking we would be having a dance class, where Melanie and the dance students would be teaching how to count music, showing positions, teaching basic movements, etc. However, I was surprised and excited to find out that the class was much more centered on individual creativity and improvisation. I was also very surprised how creative and unreserved the seniors danced. I had a preconceived notion before class that the older adults would be a bit shy, move a bit slower and wouldn’t be able to do some of the more advanced movements the students could do. I quickly found out this ageist opinion was very incorrect; overall the older adults were so much more free and energetic than the students! As I was dancing with my PAL, she was the one coming up with the quick, more advanced movements that I couldn’t keep up with! It was quite an eye-opener and it almost completely caused the generational-gap to disappear.