Motley Hue

(NYC, 13--15 March 2015)

A new dance is being born. A new dance would typically coalesce new sounds, rhythms, moves, and hitherto rejected social practices. By contrast, fusion fails to advocate a set of moves, or at any rate refuses to endorse a standardised vocabulary. Instead, fusion promotes an overarching principle, an imperative: Anything---blues, latin, lindy hop, waltz, tango, contact improvisation, zouk, ballet---goes. Any narrative that feels good and is enhanced by music goes. Any music goes, too.

The inclusiveness of the fusion imperative need not be self-defeating. Most successful scientific endeavours and art forms are defined similarly: "X is whatever those who do X do." Economics and jazz are like that, without compromising their identities.

The fusion imperative emphasises musicality (well served by slower tempos), improvisation (which may call on any dance style), close connexion (e.g., in close embrace, to a clear beat), and subtle communication (through weight changes, weight sharing, and role reversals). The emphasis on communication and the espousal of the ambiguity of music and movement beget (occasionally Punchdrunk-level) art, which one can enjoy both within and without.

The comprehensiveness of dance styles allows for a variety of stories to be told. So one can be sincere with every partner, to every song, for half a song, for however many songs it takes to tell the story. The music coordinates, but does not subordinate.

Intensity is eternity.