The Discipline of Positive Calm: Redeeming Our Disagreements
Sometimes I just love participating in dance discussions and debates. I enjoy having conversations in person, batting ideas back and forth by email, diving into discussions on the forums. But I can only take so much. I’m definitely not a die-hard regular on the forums with thousands of posts. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. I’m just the kind of person who likes to stop by and dig in for a couple of weeks and then retreat and focus on other things for a while. Makes my occasional visits much more focused and meaningful.
Part of this is my personality, but another part of it is the negativity, the derision, and the name-calling. I see it on forums, I see it on a few blogs, I see it in friendly conversations that have taken a wrong turn somewhere. When I encounter this I tend to take a step back and detach a bit. Why so much hostility? Why such defensive and caustic remarks provoked by seemingly nothing other than disagreement?
Dance is a very personal thing. It is played out on and in our bodies, reveals our mental and emotional habits and choices, and calls forth our creative and intuitive energies. It constantly yet insidiously butts up against issues of gender, culture, and politics. So dance can’t help but become wrapped up in our identities in a way that is both obvious and elusive. But surely our differences can be expressed and explored in a way that doesn’t lead to a cheap and adversarial battle of words.
