My Technique

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Pages: 3

From the article "I Don't Want to do African … What About My Technique?:" Transforming Dancing Places into Spaces in the Academy by Raquel L. Monroe, the author discussed about the problems that currently occur in the dance space of a higher institution. The term ‘technique’ has become problematic when the Monroe pointed the fear of the future dancer if they took dance class that is different from ballet or modern. The article further discusses in defining what ‘technique’ is by using excerpts and interviews with teachers and students. Moves from different background should compliments each other instead of emphasizing certain of it. Moreover, she also touches the topic on racial injustice in dance from the stereotypes of certain movement that …show more content…
As a person who was not raised in the United States, I never thought that the problem also existed elsewhere. For instance, the subtle racial discrimination that demonetized the minorities, both in the academic’s environment and socially relate me the most. Parts of the article on the story of dancing like black girls and vice versa have touched me on the idea of why a dance form would be made especially for a group of people. Coming from Malaysia, which is a multiracial country have made me exposed to various cultural dance that made me curious and hungry to learn the foreign moves. For example, Bharata natyam is one of the forms that made me euphoric in learning it. Since I am a male and non-Indian, my experience in learning it was dull as the instructor was focused mainly on Indian girl dancers. The sense of being a minority to another minority group made me feel how insignificant I was even with my sincere presence to learn. “The dance was made for Indian woman”, as he stated it while boasting how great the dance is compared to other forms. He further state that I should rather do Zapin, which is my cultural dance, instead. I understand the conservatism idea of wanting to preserve their culture, but downgrade others form just incite the idea of race superior which is something that we should neglect to avoid any creation of tension between people by these