Ohio State dancers shed light on diversity, movement and body image amongst next generation
Sullivant Hall houses both the Department of Dance, as well as the Barnett Theatre. Photo Credit | Tatyana Woodall
By: Tatyana Woodall
Inside the world of Ballet, racial diversity might be more than a hop, skip and a pirouette away, but as contemporary dancers fight to erase stereotypes surrounding their craft, they aren’t just using their bodies to showcase their communities - they’re telling stories with them.
Kylee Smith, second-year MFA student and choreographer, began her career as a ballerina before later transitioning to modern dance after being influenced by the Africanist roots of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.
“I knew I didn’t want to be a ballerina because I felt like I couldn’t be a ballerina as a black woman - or as a black girl at this point,” she says. “I felt like my body didn’t fit the pre-described image of what a ballet dancer is supposed to look like - I’m not super tall or super thin or any of that, so I didn’t feel there was space for me there.”
Although many western performances have taken cues from black cultural practices, dancers of color have often been relegated to African, Latinx, and hip-hop styles of music.
Smith, whose thesis explores dance as a ritual practice, describes her relationship with movement as something that inspires others to bridge the gap between the past and the present.
“I really began to not only envision more possibilities for what my work could look like in that space, but that what I made as a choreographer mattered and that there was a validity in the space that I was taking up,” says Smith.
But the art of dance is always evolving - and after her grandmother passed, the way Smith approached kinesthetic storytelling shifted yet again.
“There was a space that opened up for my grief in dance and improvisation that I couldn’t find elsewhere, and I felt that she was meeting me in that space,” she says. “My hope is that I can dance the pieces of my broken heart into the arms of my ancestors, and one day that they will return it to be whole. That is why I’m doing what I’m doing.”
Like many who have come before her, Smith finds success in breaking the mold. Her work supports the next generation, and urges them to realize the amount of freedom that comes with letting go of traditional values.
Even the Department of Dance has seen immense growth in outreach, and in cultivating an atmosphere of appreciation for cultural identity. Since adding an Africanist aesthetics class to the core curriculum, more than a few students have taken the chance to delve deeper into dance history.
Thaliyah Cools-Lartigue, a third-year dance major, has been involved with multiple departmental projects, and this year, studied abroad with the Brazil Dance Tour Group. She says the trip allowed her to be comfortable both in her skin, and in her skills as a contemporary performer.
“I want to identify myself as a versatile dancer, and don’t want to be put into that box of what I’m supposed to be because I’m a black female dancer,” Cools-Lartigue says. “That has led me to think of dance as a transformation, like I’m constantly becoming someone else, constantly learning something, to be something new.”
There are completely different ways of moving the body, and while Cools-Lartigue’s experiences have led her to believe that every kind of dance has a unique background, she says people shouldn’t be so restricted by other’s preconceptions.
“A mantra that I kind of live by is like follow your dreams,“ she says. “Don’t let anyone tell you that this isn’t a legitimate career path. I’m going to dance, that’s my dream and that’s what I’m going to do, so I hope other people follow their dreams as well.”