Dance Discourse Communities

The dancing community I’ve been apart of since the age of three is one that has consisted of blood, sweat and tears... literally. My discourse community, meaning a group of members who use communication to achieve goals and purposes, is one I have worked hard to be apart of. My Dance studio is its own discourse community. With the movement of a person’s body on and off stage, they are able to express emotions as well as tell a story at the same time. John Swales believes their are six characteristics which makes for a discourse community. These include having the members of a community sharing their own goals, intercommunication, feedback, genre, lexis, and a level of members with a suitable degree (Swales 220-222). When one thinks of dancers,

many think of the show, “Dance Moms.” When the dance instructor, Abbey Lee Miller, criticizes the students, and even their mothers. This show isn’t how all studios are. Of course there are shared goals between each studio, but they differentiate in the way their discourse community works.
“Tendu, plie- down! Down!- six, seven-and-eight-and a one, two...” She screams until its fully corrected. The screaming voice I’ve mocked in my head for years now. “20 push-ups if those arms don’t stay up!” “Do it over... you weren’t all together. Reach up on five, releve on six! Go.”
As a dancer for over sixteen years, my team and I have worked together through the toughest of times. John Swales believes the first characteristic of a discourse community is to have “a broadly agreed set of common goals” (Swales 220). This is exactly what my team is about. When I asked a fellow member of my dance team, Meaghan Keating, what she believed our goals as a team were, they were the same response as to what I believed. “As a team, I think our goal is to become a second family to each-other. If we are a family we work better together. We really do become sync in our movements.” Working together in our community helps us to achieve the ultimate goal all of us share, to place the highest score in the competition we perform at. With doing so, we must us the movements and rhythm of our body to tell a story. As a team with express emotion in the story that we try to tell to entertain the audience.
“Better see everyone of your faces tomorrow! we have work to do”
John Swales explained his second characteristic as a form of intercommunication among its members (Swales 221).

Spending six days a week together, it’s not hard to get in-touch with other members of my team. In the dance discourse community I belong to, we use our scheduled dance rehearsals and practices to communicate with each other. Text messaging seems to be the only way we can reach each other now-a-days (when we aren’t at practice of course). We also have our own private blog within our dance class, where we are able to post videos of what we practiced that day- incase a rare chance someone was not able to

attend.
“I literally sat in a split with textbooks on my feet so I didn’t have to hear her bitch about my flexibility anymore.”
All teams share a reason as to why they provide information and feedback amongst one another. According to John Swales third characteristics, “a discourse community uses its participatory mechanisms primarily to provide information and feedback” (Swales 221). In my dance community we use our practices everyday to improve in our dances. When I asked a fellow teammate, Julie Bradley, why she believed practice was important she replied, “Practice is something that brings us together, we learn our mistakes. We correct them and we grow from them.” It seems almost crazy when someone tells another that all they do is sleep, eat, and breathe dance. When not at dance practice, me and my team text each other what we are doing regarding dance and what we are eating so we can all agree if it is the right food to keep our bodies strong. We not only stretch during practice but before practice, before bed, and when we wake up. Flexibility obviously does not come easy. We do this to improve our team as a whole, to work together as one.
“Look in the placement book to see if your in the right spot...please, it doesn’ look right.”
Sean Branick wrote in his essay, “Coaches Can Read, Too: An Ethnographic Study Of A Football Coaching Discourse Community”, that certain genres help a football team and football coaching staff operate efficiently (Branick 267).

I believe the same goes for dance, which ties into John Swales fourth characteristic of how a discourse community possesses one or more genres or text (Swales 221). A certain genre we use to help dancers and the choreographer operate efficiently is our placement book. Our placement book is created for the students and choreographer. When assigned a specific placement for a certain part of the routine, we mark it down in our book so we are able to look back on it incase one forgets, or if someone was absent. We also have a book created by the choreographer called the “stepbook”. This book gives a brief walk through of the steps and is later copied for each of the members in my discourse community. We look back at these steps once we leave practice and memorize each

movement.
“Hold in open fourth...DOUBLE UP ON RELEVE!..Spot..spot.. land in fifth!”
Many outsiders will walk into our dance class and have no clue what is being said. This is referred to as John Swales fifth characteristic, “ a discourse community has acquired some specific lexis” (Swales 222). We dancers have a specific lexis throughout our community. A lexis is an extremely important characteristic of a discourse community, because it sets aside the members who really are apart of this community. As Sean Branick states, “ There are many terms that are involved in football coaching communities that may not make sense to most people but, among a team, make perfect sense and help the community better do its work and achieve it goals (Branick 266). This same statement applies to the dance community perfectly. This is because we used words in ballet such as “grand plie” “first” or “releve”. In Jazz, we use terms such as “ball change” or “passé”. This specific lexis is what differentiates us from other discourse communities therefore making us unique.
“Try-outs for elite teams are in a week, are you sure you’re ready.. because that toe should be pointed in that arabesque.”
Within each studio we all have, as Swales states, a “suitable degree of relevant content and discoursal expertise” (Swales 222). In my studio we have levels of dance based upon your technique and your determination. If you are put in the senior elite team, you have proven your talent to many. Each person must start at the bottom in regular dance class, and work their way up to the competition elite teams, which tryouts are held for. Since every member starts at the bottom, teachers and choreographers must work to try and make each member of this discourse community amazing. When you are a beginner at the studio I attend, you are there to have fun or extremely determined to work your way at the top. Working your way to top. When I asked my dance instructor Courtney, what does she look for in beginning students, she replied, “I search for girls and boys with dedication. Ones who come here with a passion and can show it through their movements of their body. I look for facial expressions and search for the dancer who dances with a purpose.” Within our studio we work together. The older girls are always helping the younger girls to get to the top. They use their experience to help improve new comers techniques and help spread the passion of dance so one day when the older girls leave, the younger girls can do the same.
The movement of a person’s body as they perform is something that will always truly amaze me. To be apart of such a dedicated community is a blessing within itself. Through John Swales definition of a discourse community, I believe that my dance studio community fits perfectly. Each of his six characteristics are expressed throughout the dance community. Within just fours walls of a dance studio it is crazy how this community becomes one. This community has a way of communication and language, genres, members of higher standing, a way to inform and most importantly, shared goals.