“The Girl in Yellow” and the Language of Dance/Danza/Baile/Danse/رقص

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One of my favorite rooms in my mother’s house is what you would call “the yellow room” or the dining room.  It may seem small or tacky for those who prefer cream wallpapers, but the bright yellow color hits you with a jolt of energy, and my sister’s Pollock-inspired paintings and the unique dish arrangement on the table tell you that this displays an artist’s imagination in interior design.  This room has the most energy in the house, even though it lacks sunlight during some hours of the day.  The fluorescent light at the top, when turned on, initiates a new happiness into the room. 

When I go to turn on the light, I can almost hear the laughs from past Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners shared in that room.  It’s a certain intangible vibrancy that leaves an imprint on the person who played party to an occasion there.  The yellow room reminded me of good times and beckoned me to dance. 

How can so much color inspire such movement in a being? Well-renowned choreographer Martha Graham captured that essence of color in one of her dances featuring different dancers in different colors, one particularly being “the Couple in Yellow” in Graham’s Diversions of Angels.  The “Couple in Yellow” represented the young, playful and flirtatious love between lovers, giving a different energy to the entire dance from what the “the Couple in Red” (representing the passionate love) and “the Couple in White” (representing the mature love) emitted.[1] 

I was first aware of this dance and characters through colors when I saw an inspiring video from Interlochen Arts Academy’s dance academy rehearsing a version of Diversions, which can be seen here.  The young and fresh energy that the young cast of dancers brought to the dance, especially “the Couple in Yellow”, was contagious.  I sense that very vibe when I entered into my own mother’s ‘yellow room’ – a sense of hopefulness, happiness and vibrancy in the essence of being young. 

Dance granted me these feelings of “happiness and vibrancy”, especially through lyrical dance where structure is less implemented and more fluidity takes precedence over strict ballet positions.  Contemporary dance has changed the way that all dancers express themselves, no longer rigid to one art form but free to express cultural connections through new inspirational choreography.  This is what Katherine Dunham did when she imbued dance with the African Diaspora experience.[2]  Likewise, Martha Graham created a new form of contemporary dance from her own interpretation of the human body and emotional expression.[3]

This weekend, the Touhill Performing Arts Center at the University of Missouri-St. Louis is hosting the fifth annual “Spring to Dance Festival 2012” this upcoming Memorial Day weekend.  This festival will host over 30 different dance companies from across the nation, dancing in the different forms of ballet, tap, jazz, lyrical, pointe, and more.  I am only reminded that dance has become a common language of emotions and thoughts for dancers across this nation as well as around the world.  When I left Jordan, I left as one of the most outstanding, D.C.-based dance companies was coming to visit Amman: the Dana Tai Soon Burgess Company (DTSB&CO).  Recently DTSB&CO made a trip to the Middle East, spreading the culture and art form of dance and creating a cross-cultural dialogue all around the world. 

This is what dance can do: it gives people voices through body movements to understand and express their experiences, past, present and future, to the rest of the world.  It is just as astounding as visual and musical art from different cultures.  When I saw “the Girl in Yellow” motif in my mother’s dining room, I was reminded that dance is for everyone - to move and sway to your own rhythm and express those experiences inside of you.

[2] Katherine Dunham Centers for Arts & Humanities. <http://kdcah.org/>.
[3] Martha Graham Dance Company. <http://marthagraham.org/about-us/our-history/>.

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