Do dancers need heroes?
Do dancers need heroes?
Dance doesn’t directly save lives or rescue anybody.
Our roles aren’t those of firefighters, doctors, or The President.
Who do you look up to?
Do communities need to look up to someone?
Do dancers need role models?
Are our role models the iconic choreographers backstage or do we look up to one specific performer/image/character?
Choreographers and artistic directors have authority; and, if you are a company dancer, your hero is very locatable. The choreographer as hero becomes present and on hand to dispense advice and inspiration (or let’s hope so).
Of course their position of power inevitably means that the dancer does not necessarily look up to their choreographer as hero but as someone to approve of their activities.
“Yes yes, you are on the right path.”
Are role models necessarily authority figures?
Do we seek out heroes to seek out approval?
Do our heroes have something that we want?
Can we look up to someone and not desire to be who they are, to do things better, to continue where they left off?
Given the chance, would you want to replace your hero?
Is our relationship to heroism just a form egotism and competition?
What if we made up our own heroes?
They are not real.
They are fabrications of distant generosity and support.
They are the embodiment of possibility.
They do not see you as a charity case but work with you to discover that there is no reward, only time spent.
Editor’s note: tune in next week to hear our answers to the two hardest questions on this list.
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