Storytelling in Dance

Foreword:
In the dance community, sometimes after a performance, the choreographer and performers will have a question-and-answer session with members of the audience who want to stick around to gain more insight into how the performance came together and the artistic process that went on. The directors, choreographers, and dancers who were a part of the show, try to relay the rehearsal and creative process that took place. Answering the audience's questions can often come forth in the place of story telling. I have been to several of these Q&A sessions myself and have seen how these stories unfold.

Example story:
A handful of audience members sit in a half empty theatre after the performance of "Yellow Towel" - a contemporary dance piece choreographed by Dana Michel. In the Q&A session following the performance, an audience member asks what was the significance of the yellow towel that was used as a prop throughout the piece. Dana Michel answers:

"When I was young, growing up, I began to notice that the girls who had blonde hair, seemed to be the most popular and 'rule the school', so to speak. They were the cheerleaders, had boyfriends on the football team, got to go to all the formal dances. I so badly wanted to be like the girls who had blonde hair. So, when I would go home in the afternoons, I would take a yellow towel and drape it over my head, pretending to be like the popular girls. As I grew up though, I realized how much stereotypes and conformity pervades our schools and especially the young minds of kids. It changes their concepts of identity. That idea kind of rooted in me, and that memory of when I wanted to be like the cool girls, with my yellow towel over my head, started to become the inspiration for this piece of choreography that I ended up entitling, 'Yellow Towel'." 



Analysis:
This is a personal story from the choreographer's own life that is used to show her own experience with the subject matter of the dance. It presents how the idea of conformity and stereotypes affected her and how she wants to contradict this idea through her choreographic work, persuading others to see how the towel was symbolic of stereotypes and identity.

Retelling of the story:
Michel could elicit a more emotional response from her audience by retelling the same story but giving a more specific snapshot of how she felt like her own personal identity was connected to physical appearances and how this affected her in her growing up years.

"I was sitting in my room one day after school. My mother came into my room to find me crying on my bed. She asked me what was wrong. 'Jana Roberts told me today that I wasn't pretty, and wouldn't ever have friends at school because blondes have more fun.' I sniffled. My mom looked into my teary eyes and told me that I was a smart and talented person, and the color of my hair didn't make one bit of difference as to who was better than anyone else at school. 'But you're my mom, you have to say that!' I was angered by her attempts to soothe me and told her to leave. Once the door was shut again, I ran to the bathroom and put a yellow towel over my head, imagining how much better my life would be if I were blonde. I later realized how consumed I had become and how much worth I placed on physical appearance and body image."

This story could have more effect in getting the audience member who asked the question to understand what the yellow towel meant and what its purpose was in the performance. This story is more persuasive and engaging as the story included specific characters, dialogue, and more emotion. This makes the yellow towel have more significance that could allow audience members to better connect to the piece, because they too can relate to the emotions Michel described.