Final Exam Essays: Chloe Stacey

Short Essay #1: Rhetoric and Religion

In the past, rhetoric was seen as very separate from religion. In early Christianity, members of the faith were not known to be very eloquent in the way they talked or wrote. Literacy and eloquence were not seen as their talents. Augustine (4th century), someone who we know to have become very involved in Christianity, was not interested in the religion at first due to their lack of eloquence. He was studied in the art of rhetoric, and Christianity was far from it. But Augustine used his rhetorical training to apply it to Christianity. He began rhetorically analyzing Biblical text. He used figurative language to pull out meaning from the scriptures. He argued that in order to best understand scriptural text, you had to have an understanding of figural expression so that you could pull out the meaning. Reading the Bible was not about reading for an argument, it was about reading for a deeper meaning that could be better understood rhetorically. This is the first time in history we see a shift from a tension between rhetoric and religion, to a blending of the two.

Today, we still see how rhetoric can be used to lend to more understanding of religion and religious texts. We read the scriptures with understanding of metaphors, similes, comparisons, sentence structure. If one has this knowledge they can better understand what Christ is really trying to teach in his parable of the lost coin; what he really wants us to do when he tells Peter, "Feed my sheep," in John 21; and what he really means when he compares wheat to tares. Christ spoke in the scriptures using language and rhetorical tools that would help him better reach the people he was ministering to. As we read ancient scripture today, we can not feel lost and far removed from these teachings. His parables and metaphors were just as much for our day as they were for back then. We have to grow our knowledge in figurative language, as Augustine first demonstrated, to better understand the Savior's teachings.

Our own modern day prophets and leaders teach us through anecdotes, play on words, repetition - things that will capture our attention and apply teachings in a deeper way. Elder Maxwell was known for having a very organized and specific structure in his speech, using metaphors and rhetorical tools. Elder Holland uses repetition and parallel structure to prove his points. Even today, leaders have seen how rhetorical manner of speech can better reach out to an audience. If we understand how and why they are speaking in this manner, we will better be able to hear the meanings we are supposed to take to heart.


Short Essay #2: Rhetorical Analysis of Jacob 2-3

In his speech, Jacob is chastising the Nephites for their pride and sin, and is denouncing against fornication and every type of sin. To effectively get his message across, to have the people feel guilty for their sins and to become repentant, Jacob's speech overall has a large appeal to pathos. He refers back multiple times to being burdened down by heavy emotions, and to the people having broken hearts: "I this day am weighed down" (chapter 2, verse 3), "it grieveth my soul" (verse 6), "the word of God burdens me because of your grosser crimes" (verse 23), "the sobbings of their hearts ascend up to God against you" (verse 35). By including so much emotional description in his speech, he is really appealing to pathos to get the people to understand how devastating it is that they have committed these sins.

Through chapter 2 of his speech, Jacob has an extended metaphor that he carries on throughout the chapter. He uses a metaphor speaking of daggers and piercing. He also talks about wounded hearts. He carries a metaphor of daggers and pain through his speech to again highlight the pain caused from these sins, and how serious it is. In verse 9, talking about their crimes Jacob says, "Instead of feasting upon the pleasing word of God have daggers placed to pierce their souls and wound their delicate minds." Verse 10 reads, "under the glance of the piercing eye of the Almighty God." This use of the word "piercing" gets the point across that God himself can pierce you because of the sins and wounds you have caused upon others. This is highlighted again in verse 15: "O that he would show you that he can pierce you." Jacob concludes chapter 2 again focusing on the idea of piercing: "many hearts died, pierced with deep wounds." By carrying out this extended metaphor, Jacob compares the sins to piercing daggers that wound and kill. In return, the consequence will be that God will pierce them. This extended metaphor relays the seriousness of these sins to the people.

Jacob also splashes some other rhetorical devices in his speech. In verse 6, he uses alliteration to emphasize the grievousness of the sins of the people: "causeth me to shrink with shame." He uses repetitive and parallel sentence structure in verses 15 and 16, "O that he would show you that he can pierce you......O that he would rid you from this iniquity and abomination.....O that ye would listen unto the word of his commands...." This repetitive and parallel form acts as a pleading to God and to the people, to repent and to make the situation right again. In verses 14 and 21, Jacob uses rhetorical questions to get the people to really ponder if God would really condone their actions. In verse 27, Jacob uses anastrophe, inverted word order when he says, "concubines they shall have none." By finishing the sentence with the word "none" instead of saying, "have no concubines," allows the audience to focus on the word "none" and what it means, instead of thinking about concubines. In talking about pride, Jacob warns against costly apparel. He uses a nice metaphor when he says, "you wear stiff necks and high heads," (verse 13). It is fitting that he used the word choice "wear" in talking about pride, because he is teaching that expensive and gaudy clothing that a person wears, can cause them to wear a stiff neck and high head. It is a clever play-on-words.

Finally, in chapter 3, Jacob uses a form of comparison to describe purity and filthiness. In verse 8 he says, "I fear that unless ye shall repent of your sins that their skins will be whiter than yours." He uses metonymy to reference purity by talking about white skin, something that is symbolic and representative of that attribute. Likewise, dark skin represents filthiness when he says in verse 9, "revile no more against them because of the darkness of their skins; neither shall ye revile against them because of their filthiness." Verse 9 is also a great example of parallelism, where Jacob clearly provides a balanced equation where he equates dark skin to filthiness.

Through this variety of rhetorical devices, and many others that can be found in the speech, Jacob effectively explains the heartache and consequences of the people's sins and calls them to repentance.

Discussing Dance: Channeling Your Inner Critic

Entertainment vs. art. This is an age-old debate we continue to have in our society that may or may not ever really have a correct answer to it. What constitutes entertainment? What constitutes art? Can entertainment and art be the same thing, or are they supposed to be separate? Depending on how we view the two affects the way we communicate about a creative work, in any medium of performance. Although the art form of dance should inspire and evoke personal responses from audience members, when watching dance, viewers should strive for sophisticated communication that can separate subjective personal opinions from objective critical evaluation in order to give more effective feedback on work.

Annotated Working Draft & Hotspots - Dance

Component Assignments:

1. Communication and Persuasion in Dance Reviewing and Grant Writing
In this post, I focus on the idea that while dance is an art form that largely communicates solely with the physical body, it also needs verbal communication and written words to thrive. I explain how dance reviewing and grant writing are two main ways dance relies on verbal and written communication for feedback and growth.

2. Storytelling in Dance
This post tells how storytelling in dance often comes in the form of telling stories to explain the creative process that goes on behind-the-scenes when creating a work. Audience members don't often see dance choreography in its "work in progress" phase. They normally see it in a polished finished state, ready for performance. Stories can give background as to how a piece of work came to be.

3. History of Dance: A Long Standing Art Form in a Nutshell
This blog post explains how the art of dance is not something new to us, neither is communicating about it. Throughout the centuries, people have communicated about dance for different reasons and in different ways. Dance developed to a point where we could now critique it and discuss it in a more academic setting. But dance has always been a part of human culture.

4. Institutional Authority and Communication in Dance Teaching and Training
In this post, I explain an authoritative institution that communicates the qualifications, certification, and basis for which we teach dance and how we train students. I also use a story based on true events to show how one can be involved in and communicate about dance in different ways.


Hot Spots:

1. Hotspot #1: In the Field - We use dance because it expresses something that transcends words. But words help take dance to a higher level of maturity and sophistication. Dance reviewing is critical in giving feedback to help grow and develop a dancer or a choreographer. Communication about dance has to be more objective rather than the subjective, "I liked it," or "I didn't like it." Writing or talking about dance needs to be able to pull evidence from the movement itself and try to push away personal opinions or biases.

2. Hotspot #2: Personal - Storytelling is something I rely on a lot when choreographing. A lot of people look at works of choreography and if they don't "understand" it or immediately pick up on "what it was about", then they often retreat to the opinion of "I didn't like it." Storytelling needs to come through words to give explanations of our creative process and also come through the movement as we try to relate our inspiration to the audience.

3. Hotspot #3: Historical - Dance has evolved to fulfill different needs of a civilization, whether it had to do with religion, status, or emotional confusion. We have to understand why our society today needs dance, and how we use it, in order to understand how we communicate about it and what things are being said.

Institutional Authority and Communication in Dance Teaching and Training

After dancing for most of her life, Haley's performance career had come to an end. The chronic bone spurs in her foot left her unable to perform with her university's top ballet company. Going up on pointe shoes was now entirely out of the question. Devastated at her inability to perform, Haley reflected on how she might be able to still participate and have a long-lasting effect in the dance world. She sat in the office of one of ballet teachers and mentors, Jennifer, to discuss some options. 

After explaining her concerns, Haley asked for guidance. "You know, Haley, a similar thing happened to me when I was young, dancing professionally. Arthritis in my hip prevented me from performing. Even though I couldn't dance myself, I knew I could influence and help others to dance. I went into teaching. You have a real understanding of ballet technique." Jennifer handed Haley a pamphlet off her desk. "I became a certified teacher through the American Ballet Theatre's National Training Curriculum [Authoritative Organization]. If you're interested, this course could really help you develop the teaching skills you need to stay connected to dance." 

"National Training Curriculum?" Haley asked. Jennifer continued, "ABT, the nation's top ballet company, came out with a standardized national curriculum in 2007 to qualify teachers and standardize ballet training around the country. Franco de Vita and Raymond Lukens, dancers and producers with ABT, met with a board of artistic and medical advisors to produce the safest and most effective method of training based on anatomy, nutrition, and overall bodily health [Influential Event]. They created a national syllabus and a grading rubric to evaluate the quality of teachers through this program, and this pamphlet gives you information you would need in order to become certified through the institution [Authoritative Publication]." 

"So, what do I have to do?" 

"Well, it lists it in the pamphlet, but several times throughout the year, ABT holds intensive conferences at different locations around the country. You can register to go to this training course. You will attend pedagogy and health workshops to qualify you in teaching. After you complete the intensive, you will have to pass an examination by the Curriculum board - you will demonstrate exercises and give and oral exam to questions they ask [Regulating Standard]."

"That sounds a little intimidating," Haley admitted. "ABT is the most elite, established, and toughest ballet company in the United States." Jennifer nodded. "That's true, and this training curriculum does make them seem to be even more intimidating with the qualifications they require, but I know you would be up to the challenge. And you're studying Physical Therapy aren't you? With your knowledge of exercise sciences and injury prevention, I know you would really be able to grasp the curriculum and pedagogical methods they teach at these conferences, since it is largely anatomy based. And actually, people who have done research in health sciences are always submitting new research at these conferences to solidify the curriculum even more [Challenging Authority/Changing Standards]."

"Well, it definitely sounds like it's up my ally. Thanks for your insights, Jennifer. I really appreciate it."

"Of course, Haley. Like I said, I went through the curriculum myself, and from one injured dancer to another, it was a really meaningful and influential way for me to keep up my dance career. Don't let this injury stop you now. There's a lot more to dance than just being the one on stage." 

Biblical Eloquence in Joel 3: 17-21

Joel 3:

"17: So shall ye know that I am the Lord your God, dwelling in Zion, my holy mountain: then shall Jerusalem be holy, and there shall no strangers pass through her any more.
18: And it shall come to pass in that day, that the mountains shall drop down new wine, and the hills shall flow with milk, and all the rivers of Judah shall flow with waters, and a fountain shall come forth of the house of the Lord, and shall water the valley of Shittim.
19: Egypt shall be a desolation, and Edom shall be a desolate wilderness, for the violence against the children of Judah, because they have shed innocent blood in their land.
20: But Judah shall dwell for ever, and Jerusalem from generation to generation.
21: For I will cleanse their blood that I have not cleansed: for the Lord dwelleth in Zion."

The rhetorical device primarily used in these verses in the Old Testament is a chiasmus - a specific form of inverted parallelism, where the ideas are presented, the then represented in reverse order. By doing this, the verses sandwich their topic between the same important statement which is said at the beginning and repeated at the end.

In these verses, the chiasmus is set up with the following ideas:

The Lord dwells in Zion.
Jerusalem is holy.
No strangers/foreigners shall invade her.
Blessings will come from the kingdom.
Foreign enemies will be destroyed.
Judah and Jerusalem will live forever.
The Lord dwells in Zion.

The chiasmus sets up a ABCDCBA pattern. This parallel rhetorical device is an effective way to get readers to remember the topic/the points made, and reflect on it. The Lord dwells in Zion is a key point for readers to remember, so it begins the section of scripture, and ends it, as if opening and ending on the most important part - hitting it home with a bang, if you will. By presenting the information in a mirrored way, readers are able to see the information for the first time, process it, and digest it full circle as it is reversely repeated.

Other rhetorical devices pervade this section of the Old Testament, but chiasmus is one we see written often throughout Biblical text. It is important for readers to know why it is put in the text so often, and what we are supposed to learn from it.

History of Dance: A Long Standing Art Form in a Nutshell

With a title like this, where do I even start? Researching the history of where dance began and how we began communicating about it as a more sophisticated art form reaffirmed my personal beliefs that dance is and always has been an innate part of human beings. In my research, I also discussed dance's broad and large history with BYU Professor Graham Brown, a Dance Department Faculty member who teaches the classes Dance History and Reviewing Current Trends in Dance. Graham put it very simply, "There's really no beginning of dance. People have been doing it since the start of time. But it has evolved and become a more legitimate, respected, and sophisticated art form that we can now academically analyze and discuss."

Despite this broad span of history, let's still try to pinpoint where dance has rooted its origins. Anciently, dance forms were part of cultural traditions around the world. Egyptian priests and priestesses were accompanied by harps and pipes as they would dance in the ancient temples. Their movements were used to to tell the story of the gods or to represent cosmic patterns in the heavens. Grecian dances to deities became a central part to the beginnings of Greek theatre, which we have already studied thoroughly in our class. Religious dances in the Hindu/Indian culture date back to the 1st century BC but are still viewed today in the form of more modernized Bharata Nhatyam dance.

So we can see, as early as people began learning to form societies and civilizations, dance was included as part of the way they communicated and identified a spiritual sense of belonging. Several centuries later, ballet, the next level of sophisticating dance, was born in Italy (not France, the common misconception). But it did quickly migrate to the royal courts of France as King Louis XIV took a love for dance and began instituting ballet academies in his country.

Ballet was a reigning art form for centuries to follow as it taught discipline, skill, and precision. Finally, in the 20th century, approximately around the mid 1930's-1940's, modern dance evolved in America. This was one of the first times that people really started communicating about why they danced, and the needs that dance should fulfill. As America was suffering from the Great Depression and a world war, people had more emotional needs searching for an outlet. People began communicating a shift from the tutus and tiaras of ballet, to more grounded and realistic modern dance.

With the main dance genres now born, with many break-off genres throughout the years, people were able to start comparing and contrasting the different forms. Dancers and writers alike began reviewing and critiquing choreography - evaluating whether it fulfilled its purpose, what kind of response it elicited from viewers, and if it was an effective piece of art or not. From here, dance has exploded - reaching its fingers into all sorts of cross-genres, whether it be writing, technology, or science. Dance is everywhere, and as Graham stated, has been since the beginning of time.

Chloe, Animal Whisperer Extraordinaire

Title: Chloe, Animal Whisperer Extraordinaire

Kairos/Audience: I usually tell this at family gatherings when talking about cute or funny childhood stories. 

Story: It was early in the morning.  So early you couldn't tell if it was the morning or the middle of the night. My Spongebob Squarepants alarm clock burst into the "F.U.N" song, signaling time to get up. My feet, clad in fuzzy pink socks, touched the floor and I shuffled to my closet. I shimmied out of my pajamas and into a green camouflage t-shirt I had secretly stolen from my little brother. With sneakers in tow, I crept down the stairs.

I was on a mission. For the past week, a deer had been living in our woods behind my country farmhouse. During hunting season, we always saw families of deer bounding through our fields and woods. But this one kept coming back. I, being an 8-year-old animal enthusiast, had tried many times to run up to touch the deer. But my dad informed me that deer are skittish, and typically hang around when it's dark and there aren't as many people out. That very night, before going to bed, I made a plan to find the deer the next morning. 

I rounded the staircase, and crept out the front door. "Chloe? What are you doing, sweetheart?" My father rocked in a chair, under a dim porch light, enjoying the warm summer breeze and early-morning scripture study. "I'm going to find the deer," I confidently informed him.

"Oh, really?" my dad peered over his glasses at the dark woods at the edge of the field. "Alright. Let me know when you find her." I marched down the porch steps and gathered up a bucket of feed. A few minutes later I stood at the gate, about to march into the dark unknown of the woods. I had always been afraid of the dark. My confidence began to melt. I was half-tempted to ask my dad to go with me. But I knew I should be brave and do this on my own. I dropped the feed bucket, and ran back up to the porch. "Not doing it?" Dad asked. "No, I am," I stated. "I just forgot a flashlight." Flashlight in hand, I wandered back to the fence. I picked up my feed and marched to the woods. 

The trees were large and scary. I was sure the boogey man was standing right behind one of them. But all the sudden, I heard a rustling in the leaves, and my flashlight landed on the small doe. She stared at me with big eyes. I stared back. I slowly shook my feed. To my surprise, she stepped towards me. Inch by inch, we crept towards each other, until the deer was eating feed out of my hand. I stood there for a moment, mystified by this intimate connection with nature, completely forgetting the scary darkness engulfing me. After a minute of snacking, the deer leapt away, and I ran all the way back to the porch. Breathless, I told my dad of my adventure. 

"Wow, Chloe. I'm impressed. Honestly, I didn't think you'd do it. But see? That wasn't so scary was it?" I shook my head with a beaming smile on my face. I tiptoed back up to my room and slid back into my fuzzy socks and into my warm protective sheets. Mission accomplished. 

Retelling

Title: Nature Scary and Sweet

Kairos/Audience: To my dad, telling him of braving my fear of the dark woods.

The woods, a thicket full of Georgia pine and oak [definition], stood tall and looming, a natural fence around our house. While a seemingly scary place to me, a white-tailed doe had found sanctuary in the woods. The morning I went looking for the deer, I left the house before the sun yawned and stretched itself over the horizon [personification]. Donning my camo shirt and hat, I was prepared to go on the biggest adventure of my 8-year-old life thus far. 

With feed, fashlight, and a firm conviction [alliteration], I faced the woods. I crept through the large and looming trees - monsters waiting to grab me at any moment [metaphor]. Should I turn back? My stomach was watery. No, I wanted to do this. If I didn't find the deer now, I never would. My dad told me how deer run away in the daytime, and I did not want to miss this chance [authorities]. I pushed forward, through the branches, through the brush, until my flashlight was met by two large yellow eyes. They gleamed in the stream of light. I held out a quivering hand, offering feed to the deer - letting her know I didn't want to hurt her. Cautiously, the gentle creature stepped towards me, until she trusted me and was eating out of my hand. I touched the top her head. Her fur was brown and soft; her nose black and cold [ellipsis]. 

The scariness of the woods melted out of my thoughts as I shared a moment of trust with this animal. Nature could be scary, but the deer taught me that amidst the scariness, nature could be sweet [comparison]. After that early summer morning, the woods didn't seem so scary to me anymore. While the trees seemed ominous and terrifying, they were really just protecting some of nature's sweetest creations. 

Group 1 Doe Fable - The Siege of the Sea

A fleet of sailors, a thousand arrows in flight, was journeying from the coast of Barbados, a large island resting in the heart of the Caribbean Sea. After traveling for many days, they began to run out of their food supply and became very hungry. On the cliffs of Dover, waging endless war against the sea, a doe, blinded in one eye, grazed near the edge hoping for safety. With her good eye she looked to the land for any hunters or dogs, lurking among the forest. Her bad eye, a clouded crystal ball, could not see her future fate as the sailors drawing nearer to the shore, spotted her on top of the cliff.

“Ahoy, matey! I spot a doe atop the cliff!” The captain responded, “Take aim! We can use her for food to finish out our lengthy journey.” The sailor locked his sight, with one good eye, on the deer, and pulled the trigger – releasing a thundering bullet, shattering the silence of the sea, and piercing the doe’s heart. As the doe fell to the ground, she thought to herself, “I spent so much time keeping eye on the land, when the sea has conquered me.”

Personal Stories Catalog - Chloe Stacey

1. The story of how I "friend-zoned" my husband, and broke up with him during the course of our relationship. [relationship story, love story, story about making decisions] I tell this story when people ask how Bo and I met and ended up getting married. Our story is a non-typical one in the Mormon dating culture, so it tells of how we went a little against the grain in our dating life.

2. The story of how, as an 8-year-old girl, I braved the dark of the night to find a deer that had been living in the woods behind our house. [childhood story, animal story] This is a cute story from my childhood that I tell about how I began learning to get over a fear in order to do something I wanted. It also shows my love for and connection with animals.

3. The story when I reach up and kissed my deceased grandmother in her coffin. [death story, family story] This was my first experience with death.

4. The story of being a 5-year-old girl and the experience I vividly remember that sparked my desire to dance for the rest of my life. [dance story, story about what I want to be when I grow up] One of my earlier memories I have. This story tells how I decided at a young age what I wanted to do and be.

5. The story of watching our family dog give birth to puppies. [animal story] This story has become a very spiritual one to me.

6. The story of making "storm cookies" with my mom. [baking story, mom story] This is a sweet memory of my mom.

7. The story of performing on an outdoor stage in a piazza in Italy. [travel story, culture story, dance story] This story describes some of the amazing, eye-opening experiences I had in Italy learning about the people, their culture, and dance as a universal language.

8. The story of winning homecoming queen in high school senior year. [high school story, ironic story, story about how people view me] This event that occurred was a very surprising one. This story is about how I realized that people watch who you are, even when you don't think they do.

9. The story of driving cross-country in a U-Haul after my grandmother died. [trip story, family story] This story explains a fun memory I had in my childhood. On a deeper level, it expresses the idea that even though something really sad was going on at the time, my mind was taken off of it by the fact that I got to go on a special trip. I wasn't fully understanding what was happening.

10. The story of hatching chicks in our bathtub. [animal story, farm story] This just tells people a little bit more about me and what it was like growing up on a farm in the South.

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.

Communication and Persuasion in Dance Reviewing and Grant Writing

Being a Dance major and a Writing minor, I have always been interested in how these two creative arts can come and work together as one cohesive art form. Dance and writing on the surface seem so different. One art form is completely verbal, the other, completely non-verbal. But through my years of study here at BYU, and taking multiple classes that are specific to writing about the arts, I have seen how dance needs writing. 

The world of dance needs verbal communication. While it communicates primarily through body movement, dance also needs writing to communicate. This communication comes largely in the form of dance reviewing and critiquing. As dancers, teachers, and choreographers, it is critical that we receive verbal and written responses to our work - to know how it affected a viewer, and to know how to enhance the quality of the choreography. Reviewers of a non-verbal art form such as dance, need rhetoric to learn how to craft their words to accurately describe a piece of movement or choreography, and to persuade others that a work is worth seeing. Persuasion is necessary in the world of creative arts when discussing and debating if something is an effective, good work of art or not.

This kind of discussion that takes place when reviewing work can be done in a written sense - a review published in a newspaper, or dance magazine - and it can also be done through verbal discussion. In the dance world, adjudications are events where a judge or critic views a piece of work and gives on-the-spot feedback. An adjudicator such as this must have an understanding of communication and rhetoric in order to effectively verbalize and talk about the things that occurred on the stage.

Persuasion is also needed in the dance world through grant writing. Dance is a low-funded art form in our society. Hence the "starving artist" stereotype. Collaboration is a method being more largely used by choreographers and dancers to improve their work. Choreographers collaborate with musicians to create an original score for their piece. They collaborate with tech designers to set up a graphic on the backdrop of the stage. Choreographers want to take their pieces to conferences and workshops around the world to expand their work and increase their abilities. All these many forms of collaboration are expensive. It is important for dancers and choreographers to learn effective communication in their writing skills as they write grant letters to established organizations and donors who, if convinced their cause is worthy, will grant them money to pursue their particular avenue.

While dance is typically just seen as an art that is set on a stage, using no language, and only the human body to communicate, it is critically important that dancers and non-dancers alike learn how to more effectively articulate dance into words.