Aesthetic Considerations in Community Dance: A Practitioner’s Perspective

Abstract

Since the 1970s, artists in the United States have been developing a wide range of community dance practices, profoundly influencing the aesthetics of contemporary art as a whole, and the communities in which they live. For the purposes of this paper, community dance is defined as a field in which artists collaborate with other community members on creative projects, many of which tackle social issues that include political, religious, historical, and cultural concerns. Although an enormous range of initiatives exists, community dance projects tend to celebrate such democratic ideals as collaboration, inclusion, and diversity, and focus on process-based approaches to art making. Yet despite the significant proliferation of practices, and its influence on the evolution of contemporary arts during the past forty years, community dance continues to be marginalized as a serious art form. As a whole, the field is bifurcated into two parts: its social agenda and its artistic goals, with the former being valued far more than the latter. This paper examines some of the biases towards community dance aesthetics, and attempts to identify artistic criteria that could increase appreciation of the form, expand our practices, and broaden our overall perceptions of art.