Hit the Quad: My stint with postmodern dance

The quads on UNC’s campus are collectively the greatest place on earth. When the sun is shining and the grass is warm, there is literally nothing I would rather do than sit on the quad in front of Wilson and pretend to do my homework/actually fall asleep. But the quads are worth so much more than just our failed efforts in trying to be decent students. The quads are great places for Frisbee, tossing the ol’ pigskin, preaching, sunbathing (in your clothes, though, please and thanks), picnicking, picking at grass, picking your nose, etc. One of the weirdest and best things I’ve ever done in the quad, though, is interpretive dance.

Want to know how large your comfort zone is after dancing like a fool (but still quite seriously) in the quad during a class change? Pretty enormous. I don’t know that I could ever feel truly embarrassed again. Being a weirdo is liberating, people.

Here, I’ll give some background to the situation:

I was taking a PHYA modern dance class. I’ve been a dancer all my life and movement comes pretty comfortably to me, but not on this apocalyptic day. In class, we were learning about postmodernism, a dance movement in the '60s that — like every thing else in the '60s — was pretty intent on making everything WEIRD.

Hippie dancers (while probably simultaneously upset about their last bad trip) were ANGRY about the expectations of dance performance. “You want me to dance on a stage? Are you JOKING? MIGHT AS WELL TAPE ME INTO A BOX AND BURY ME UNDER MOUNDS OF YOUR STUPID CONFORMITY.” I think we can all identify with this feeling.

Anyway, an important aspect of postmodern dance is site-specific improvisation. Basically, you go anywhere — some steps, China, the quad — and see how that space inspires you to move, and then you simply move accordingly. Sound scary? It should. Improvisation is what keeps many dancers up at night.

So, we headed out as a class to the quad for some thrilling site-specific improv. We began the fun with a warm up of running around in random circles, making eye contact with one another in silence. Bystanders were already very confused at this point. Some were probably considering calling authorities for fear that we had been possessed by some evil entity.

Next we were all instructed to approach a giant tree. Then we were instructed to dance. However the heck we wanted. I chose the most artful and abstract movement I could think of by twerking on the tree — tree-twerking, if you will. JUST KIDDING, I didn’t do that. Please never violate any tree that way.

But we did dance on the tree and around it and with it as it moved in the breeze. We all kind of lunged around and made big sweeping motions with our arms and I hope you are seeing an image of this in your head because it was pretty comical. At this point, people walking by were blatantly staring. We just kept on dancing, feeling markedly sillier than we ever had before.

It was awkward but challenging. Letting go of social expectations is incredibly difficult. In the beginning, I felt like a fool interpretively dancing around a tree, but that was because I was worried about how I was being perceived. At a point I had to let go of that insecurity and just dance the way that I know and love. It was so fun. Thanks, hippies, for strange postmodern dance. Thanks, UNC, for being a place where weird is cool and where we can all pursue what we love.