Dance Marathon (1920-1930-2011?)

By watching the event in 1920-1930 (“The Era of Wonderful Nonsense”), we are facing a representation of Patriotism and Americanism. By those times, to be a good American had a lot to do with an idea of improving the ideal of community by social events. It was not anymore a war, a daily routine, a language, but an event that holds the meanings of being American.

It was the time of establishing world records. The people were hunger for fame, and they would go to those kind of events in order to become eternal, even if it is for some minutes.
I found it difficult to distinguish individualism from community in these events. Perhaps, the individual makes the community, and through individual achievements, the community and the sense of belonging become strong.

If I play around, I guess that being American in a dance marathon had to do with staying, keeping going, goals, endurance, communication, a couple, dependency, action, proving, money, winning, fighting for what an individual wants and surrender for the sake of victory.

I can even perceive the social roles through the event. Actually, there are 2 “main roles”: the one that physically supports an event and the other, that by witnessing it is involved. The ones that physically support it are there with the aim to establish a record, to make somebody (and themselves) proud of it, getting food, money, exposing their bodies, their weakness…working. The others, that are watching, go with their nice clothes, pay an entrance, throw money to some of their favourite participants, sit and eat, and leave whenever they want…paying. With these “two main roles”, I can not avoid to think about the social class differences that are still visible nowadays in America and in lots of European countries.

The whole event was fulfilling some of the needs of the society (food, entertainment, money, time…) and that is why, the success of the whole proposal was the connection that it had with the situation, even if Dance Marathons did not last for so long, the echo of those events are still in America.

– Social Dance, in some cases, becomes representative of some historical moment, which in turn makes it historical too.

Now, in 2011, there is a global economic “crisis” that affects everybody and provokes the closure of factories, increasing the number of unemployed people and growth of bank debt.

The globalisation and the transnationalism seems to be problematic for lots of European countries, becoming the electoral claim of the upcoming new extreme-right parties. The last years have been years of bringing fear to citizens and threats towards national identity. Some sociologists  ( Massumi, Frank Furedi, DeCroux,…) called it: The politics of fear. I heard often sentences like “THEY remove what WE have” and ” THEY just come to take away what belongs to US” among people in the streets.
-“Could you demonstrate something nowadays?”
– “ What will change?”
In general, people are skeptical, which makes the individual want to be isolated and assume that his/her role in the society/community is one of powerlessness. In opposition to Dance Marathons, the current situation does not promote free time and community.

“I should find somebody that is up to pay people from their own country to establish a record. I need to find somebody that is up to be physically involved in something for the sake of nationality. Also, make big publicity and good media coverage.  Would it be maybe easier if I go to America?“

Probably, this isolation could have something to do with how the individual doesn’t have to move to be certain that it belongs somewhere.  With the use of Internet and other medias, it is easier to fulfill your own needs and desires. An Internet- user, can belong to so many communities and feel that is really part of something!
This thought, makes me think about the figure of the “distant outsider” in a social dance event. The figure, is not part of it. It is not supporting, neither encouraging, neither contributing to the event. It is not there.  Nonetheless, this “distant outsider” could have his/her own social experience. Even this outsider can reformulate the codes and have his/her own social dance event with some others.
– Social Dance events are about a present/real/body implication to the event.
– Social Dance events are about appropriation of the individual and the codes that this person creates through and with the community.

As I can see in the medias, we are in a period where the sense of nationality and knowing in which side you are, is really important and more complex than ever. Even though the precedence is not the same, in both cases, we are in a situation where people are searching ways to prove their nationality. The most nationalistic dances, folklore, are the ones that are more visible in Europe. The dances that drink from the past and that are being used as a reminder of “who we are”.

“I would like to mess up the authorship. Social dances belong to communities, and some of those communities have not even being considered as participants. So, I would like to teach Russian dances to Egyptians, Catalan Dances to Australians, and so on. Make them believe that this is the Social Dance that represent their country. It will be important to have some sociologist, historians, mayors, politicians, etc. that will support the whole idea. “

In a conversation not so long ago, with an American choreographer, she mentioned that Social Dances happens in proximity of bodies and with the aim of belonging.

So, belonging is indeed, at the end, the most important aspect of Social Dances. Not the form, but the fact that the participants belong to the action of the group. Hopefully at the end, I do not own what I am doing, but we belong to it.
In order to belong, we need to know where we are.

Goodbye song 🙂

Quim Bigas.

Las Navas del Marqués (Spain), 8th of May 2011.