I always forget how much I like dance performances. I am not sure where it comes from, but I seem to have this innate prejudice against dance as boring and, at times, just goofy-looking. In truth, it is the opposite. Watching artist exhibit such strong emotion with only their bodies as a canvas is captivating and simply beautiful.
But it is only beautiful because every single person on stage takes it seriously. If there was a single dancer cracking a smile or in anyway betraying a hint of embarrassment at their art form, the whole thing would lose its poignancy and fall apart. Afterall, if you think about what is actually happening onstage, it’s easy to see where the goofy embarrassment could come from. You, the dancer, are half-naked, flinging your limbs about in ways that are completely unnatural to tell a story with no words and often no other people. Really, dance is ridiculous.
Yet when it is done with sincerity and commitment, it becomes so much more than the sum of it’s parts. Suddenly, it is about human expression at its rawest and most primal form. The sincerity turns something ridiculous into art. The same can be said for all performance. When we break down what we are doing as performers, it is something quite bizarre and eccentric. But when we do it under the guise of sincerity, it becomes something truly beautiful. Most opera arias are melodramatic and overblown but if the performer cares, then the audience will care as well. We can apply this idea to our own personalities as well. Those who act with sincerity are better received than those who nervously second-guess themselves.
It is an interesting concept, this idea that by portraying the ridiculous as sincere we can complete something completely different, but it is what makes art work. Art is an exaggeration of life moreso than mere imitation. Art is not particularly relevant to the dreary real world in and of itself, but with heart in sincerity it enhances the very real lives we live.
