Gwangju International Center

Dance as Art and Education    

Presenter: Angie Hartley

Date: June 9th, 2012

Review Writer: Kim Wheewon

Proof-reader: Nguyen Thi Le Hoa

 What is dance? There are many answers: moving body to show emotion or shaking body and spirit following rhythm… But Angie Hartley who is the speaker this week, gave us a new answer about what dance is. She told us we can dance without moving. Following her idea, every motion including staying, making pose, staring etc can be dance. I thought her ideas was really interesting, so enjoyed her presentation that day.

 The topic was “Dance as Art and Education” and it was given by Angie Hartley. She started the presentation with question about the definition of dance and art. Many audiences gave their ideas about her question. People said the beautiful thing is art or the dance and music heals sadness in our mind.

She said any answer was right. Next, she explained the history of modern dance and gave us good examples, Isadora Duncan who started to do modern dance. And she introduced a famous person named Martha Graham, who is one of the great modern dancers. She explained the modern dance is little different from general dance, that is more creative and artistic. She needed some voluntary models and two of audiences willed to help her. She asked one of them to make a pose following the other’s description about “Lamentation”. The pose was different from the picture given by the presenter. So people were surprised when they checked the differences between the pose and the picture. She told us the modern dance is really creative and we might have felt it by comparing the pose and the picture.

 She played a song after finishing explanation of the history of modern dance. She suggested people closing their eyes and imaging which dance is appropriate for this music. Then she showed us one of modern dances in harmony with this music. The dance was beautiful and great. She gave people time to compare the dance given by her and their imagination. People enjoyed doing this activity.

 Angie ended her presentation with this activity. She brought two notices about a free dance workshop which is hosted by her. It was the useful information for people who are interested in dance.

 I thought this topic was very interesting and also informative. There were many activities for audiences to participate. Therefore, I felt like I also made the presentation together with the speaker and other audiences. I really enjoyed the talk.