Colby Dance Company allows experienced dancers a change of pace
Colby Dance Company is a student-led, on-campus organization that fosters individuality and creative expression in dance, actively moving away from the competitiveness and uniformity that can arise within this art form.
In an interview with The Colby Echo, a few members of the dance team expressed how their experience with dance at the College has improved their relationship with the sport and allowed more room for individuality.
Dance, by nature, can be very competitive, especially because there is often a preconceived image of how a dancer should look and how precise their movements are, which can put a lot of pressure on those involved to fit that mold.
For one dancer at the College, dance once took a toll on her self-image because of the implied expectation to look a certain way.
“I think the hardest thing about dance is that it breeds a really unhealthy environment in regards to your image of yourself a lot of times,” Colby Dance Company member Natalie Foster `24 said. “I think for me, especially having had ballet training, a really hard thing that I’ve experienced is being someone that doesn’t look like what a dancer is supposed to look like, and even though that’s a silly thing and there’s no way you’re supposed to look, you’re taught from a really young age that if you don’t look a certain way you’re not going to be able to dance professionally,”.
A lot of teachers in the dance world have even harmfully reinforced this idea that a dancer must fit a certain appearance on stage to be taken seriously. Some of the dance team members have personally encountered instructors who made them feel that they needed to lose weight, or like they weren’t good enough as dancers because of their external appearance.
Ainsley Bonin `24, once had teachers tell her dance team to only eat salads on competition weeks and make other comments of this nature.
Over the course of her dance career, Foster encountered ballet teachers that would publicly shame their dancers over either their weight or level of flexibility.
“I know I’ve experienced that personally with ballet teachers I’ve had in the past that would hit your stomach if they thought it was too big and hit your feet if they weren’t going the way they were supposed to bend, and push your body down into a split even though some people aren’t that flexible,” Foster said. That is kind of the toxic part about the uniformity that we are supposed to engage in, and since all of our bodies are different, there is no possible way we can all look the exact same”.
Fortunately, Alina Casaldy `24 had some positive experiences with dance instructors that put the best interest of their students first.
“There have been a couple of phases where our instructors or choreographers would become obsessed with a specific workout routine and tell you to really try and implement it at home like three times a week or whatever, but overall, a lot of the suggestions they’ve had for us in terms of following a regimen were positive,” Castaldy said.
“Like we were showing up to class really drained and one of my instructors was like ‘make a point of eating a big snack or a big meal when you get home from school before you come to dance because I want you to have energy and enjoy yourself,’” Castaldy continued.
Apart from external pressure from authority figures for dancers to fit the box of what a dancer should be, many dancers also struggle with the pressure that comes from within.
“No matter how inclusive your teacher is, because I’ve had good teachers and I’ve had bad teachers, but regardless, you’re staring in the mirror for like six hours a day trying to look like everyone else, and even if your teacher is the kindest person in the world, nothing can fix that,” Bonin said, reflecting on her experience with self-criticism in dance.
For Foster, even if she never experienced having to follow a strict regimen or being asked explicitly to lose weight, the competitive spirit of dance caused her to put a lot of pressure on herself in the past.
“I know that I haven’t ever experienced a teacher telling me to lose weight or anything like that, but sometimes it goes without saying and they’ll say something and you’ll know what they mean,” Foster said.
“I had friends where teachers would bully them in front of everybody else, so it’s one of those things where I think it just kind of depends what kind of environment you’re in,” Foster continued. “I think ballet studios a lot of times are harsher in terms of that kind of thing, and really serious competition studios. I think a lot of it comes from myself, like I’ve put a lot of pressure on myself to follow a certain regimen”.
The idea of uniformity in dance, or the notion that dancers should all look the same and move in the same way, tends to be a common theme with competitive dance teams.
However, there are a variety of dance forms and organizations that encourage self-expression and individuality, reasserting dance as an art form.
“For the most part, when I was growing up, I was on competition teams, and that’s very much not artistic freedom, like you just have to do the dance like everyone else is doing it so it looks the same, but I feel like, as you get older, you kind of realize that thats stupid and you should just do what you want, and if you just take open classes, I think it does allow for artistic freedom,” said Bonin.
“I agree with that,” Foster added. “I feel like when I was a competition dancer, I was very focused on being unified as a team and looking the same, but when I got to high school, I couldn’t compete anymore because I went to boarding school, so the dance that I was doing there was very internally focused, and a lot of times we’d do improv exercises that were all meant to look different, and that was a little bit of a jarring experience for me but was definitely a way that I realized I had a lot more creative freedom than I did when I was in a strict environment.”
Castaldy, in particular, went into college with the mindset that she was probably not going to continue dance after college, so she should make the most of the years she has left rather than focusing on the competitive aspects of dance.
“[My mom] wanted to make sure I was doing it for the enjoyment of doing dancing and not getting wrapped up in ‘do I have the best turns’ ‘am I the most flexible’ ‘do I look the best in this costume?’” Castaldy said.
It was really about enjoying the experience while I had it, and also, to some extent dance will always be in my life but I’m not going to actively be dancing on a schedule forever, it’s probably going to stop after college. So knowing that I have a couple more years left in my time of dancing, I want to make sure they’re fun,” Castaldy said.
According to Castaldy, there is room for creativity in the way that a person particularly embodies the dance, even if following a very structured routine.
“I think my foundation in dance training was very much based on structure, but I think creativity comes from how you internalize the structure and what you’re doing. We also, in my later years, at my home studio, we did a lot of improv exercises as well, and one exercise that I really liked was one where they would give you a combo and then you would do that combo, and [they gave] you a set tone and mood and you would do the same combo with a different approach, and I think that was a cool way to see how you can do the same string of choreography, but express it differently,” Castaldy said.
Colby Dance Company differs from a lot of college dance organizations in that it is student run, so rather than having an instructor, the seniors organize the program and anyone on the team can choreograph their dances.
The dancers discussed how because the group is student-run, they feel that the pressure has been taken off of them to engage in the competitive atmosphere of dance, and that they can now fully immerse themselves in the artform without the added stress of trying to impress an authority figure.
“I definitely like the aspect of being all student-run. It takes the pressure off, and also it feels more collaborative because I’m not afraid to put a suggestion out there or share my thoughts, where if there was an [instructor] leading it, I’d be more hesitant to do that,” Castaldy said.
Weighing in on the discussion, Foster added, “sometimes when there’s an [instructor] in the room, but there’s this sense of wanting to be the best and the favorite, and in the front, for me anyways because I’m competitive. Without an [instructor] in the room, it’s just fun for me, and I feel like dance hasn’t been fun in a really long time, so it was nice to get to Colby and just look forward to it and have eleven friends that I get to hang out with and do something that we all really enjoy.”
However, there are also several drawbacks that come along with being a student-run organization. Some of the dance team members, for instance, felt that their work was not being rewarded at the end of the day due to limited funding and resources from the College.
“I think the drawbacks would be not having support from the arts and theatre department, and also not having support from athletics. We’re kind of in this no-man’s land where we have the freedom to do what we would like for the most part, which is great, except that sometimes once we’ve decided what we would like to do with the club, we don’t have the support to make it happen, or the funding, and that kind of sucks honestly because we spend so many hours a week, and add them up over the year, we put a lot of effort into this, and it kind of feels like the school doesn’t want to represent us in the way that they should,” Castaldy said.
“People don’t take us as seriously as we want to be taken seriously,” Foster added.
Apart from the stress that comes from being a student-run organization, the overall team dynamic of Colby Dance Company has helped things run a lot smoother. Since most of the girls are very close, they know that they are all in it together and will make the most of the program.
“We have a great dynamic, I feel like we’re just all really good friends. I feel like I can talk to any of them about anything,” Bonin said.
Even having one another on stage during performances helps members of the team feel grounded and like they can perform to their full potential.
“I feel much more comfortable performing with a group of people who I care about, like I care about every single one of them, and I’m just happy to be with them, and I think that definitely takes the stress away because even after dancing for a really long time, I still get nervous,” Castaldy said. “Like it’s still scary to get on a stage and have people watch me, but to know that the people next to you are your friends is very comforting.”
Ultimately, for several dancers at the College who have struggled to find their artistic voice over the years they have spent in dance, the Colby Dance Company offers a healthy environment for members to focus on self-improvement and thrive, whether by performing or choreographing routines.
~ Jenna Boling `24
