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Last night, our studio hosted a guest instructor in our Contemporary class. This morning on the way to school, I asked my daughter, who happens to take the class, how it went. She said it was a lot of fun, but that she wasn’t very good at it because “it’s just not my style.” I cringed a little and then tried to explain to her why a dancer should never say anything is not their style.
The moment you decide what “your style” is, you put yourself in a box and close off a whole lot of opportunities. I have seen this with dancers time and time again. Dancers decide that they are only good at contemporary and drop out of hip hop class. Or dancers think they don’t have great lines, so they drop ballet class. These decisions are limiting who you are as a dancer and each style can support and improve the others. Your hip hop class can help you understand musicality, rhythm, and isolations in a way that will inform your contemporary dancing. Developing core strength and flexibility in ballet class will serve you in every dance style. That musical theatre class may allow you to experience performance in a way that will change your presence on stage. Take it all!
My response to that is, “great! Then you are actually learning.” In order to develop as a dancer, you must be pushed out of your comfort zone. Every dance step you have ever learned was foreign to your body at some time. It is only through repetition, focus, and hard work that it now seems like second nature. When dancers are little, everything is brand new and they attack every movement fearlessly. As dancers become teens, they are often less comfortable exploring movement that they might not be good at.
My entire studio is built on the premise that all dance should be embraced, studied, and explored. The title of my company “all that” dance is a reflection of my dream of cross-disciplinary training and offering all dance styles under one roof. I still see studios who are known for one dance style. In any given town there may be a really great ballet academy, or a really strong hip hop company, or a fabulous musical theatre program, but it is only when we integrate these styles and give them equal importance that we are truly developing a complete dancer.
So for my two cents, I don’t want dancers who have just one style, I want dancers who understand their bodies well enough to embrace any style. You are not a hip hop dancer, you are not a ballet dancer – you are a dancer, period. And dancers dance – any style, any movement, any music. You are more than just one style; you are a dancer.
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Sarah Beth Byrum received her Bachelor’s Degree in Dance from the University of Oregon and founded All That! Dance Company that same year. Sarah Beth began dancing at the age of three, training in all styles. Sarah Beth was published in Spotlight on Dance and featured in Family Fun Magazine. She was the recipient of prestigious Gerald E. Bruce Award by the Ford Family Foundation. She has also been awarded by the National Dance Educators Association, Oregon Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance, the Junior Miss Scholarship Program, and Phi Beta Fraternity for the Arts. Sarah Beth was recently honored by the University of Oregon's Dance Department with their prestigious Community Partnership Award. Her expertise has been published in Dance Studio Life magazine and she is a member of the worldwide Dance Studio Owners Association. Her passion for dance has led her to produce over fifty full length concert events, as well as being the founder and creative director for the annual production of the Nutcracker Remixed. She has received countless awards for her choreography and the technical proficiency of her students at both regional and national competitions. Sarah Beth shares her love for dance with students of all ages from toddlers through adults.
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