Music and Dance for Everyone

Connecting Socially

Landfillharmonic

Music and Dance and Community: Landfill Harmonics has the right spirit!

Dance and music are intrinsically linked.  My favorite dances are the ones that arise organically from the music, street dances like Lindy Hop and Hip Hop.  There is something special about a dance that makes a dancer out of someone who fell in love with the music, as opposed to a dance with rigid rules that requires very specific training.  There is definitely room for both.  I just really like the idea of people creating a dance and sharing it and playing with it on a grass roots level.

Part of the charm of this type of dancing is it’s accessibility.  If you fall in love with Ballet, you have to train in a particular way.  It’s very time consuming, expensive, and hard on the body.  A street dancer does have to achieve certain skills in order to do that particular dance, and of course can still benefit from training with the right teacher, but a lot can be picked up from other dancers.  There’s an aspect of community to street dancing that I’m particularly drawn to.

I’m no musician, but I think a similar thing can be said of music.  There is classical music just as there is classical dance and there is music that arises from musicians jamming together.  And then there is classical music on a community level.  I never cease to be amazed at the ingenuity of the human mind when it is focused on love of and service to others.

Because of the link between music and dance, and because I so love this project, I wanted to feature it in my blog.  I’m incredibly moved and inspired by this group of people bent on making music available to everyone.  This is the best example I’ve ever seen of making use of what you have to create something outstanding to raise the artistic opportunity of people who have very little.  Music raises the spirits and increases anyone’s quality of life dramatically.  In the poignant words of one child in this video, “My life would be worthless without music.”  If you don’t think music is trans-formative, see if this story doesn’t change your mind!

[embedplusvideo height=”388″ width=”640″ editlink=”http://bit.ly/1b75Vv0″ standard=”http://www.youtube.com/v/fXynrsrTKbI?fs=1″ vars=”ytid=fXynrsrTKbI&width=640&height=388&start=&stop=&rs=w&hd=0&autoplay=0&react=1&chapters=&notes=” id=”ep4032″ /]

by LaurieAnn Lepoff

like this post? use the form at the right to subscribe!

 

.

 

Sharing = Caring!
Follow

About the Author

With a professional dance teaching career spanning over three decades, LaurieAnn Lepoff specializes in teaching people with two-left-feet the skills of leading, following and dancing to the music, while working with the psychological and physical barriers of the human body.