Dance into Art!

Wai Chuen Chan
10/6/2019

Jennifer Monson brought us to experience art through dance and movement at Krannert Art Museum.

Jennifer Monson is an American dancer and choregrapher. On October 3, she showed us a new way to interpret art during her dance workshop at Krannert Art Museum. She had brought us to use not vision, but dance and movement to feel the art, which you may find a experience you have never had.

I have not much experience with art, not even through dance and movement. This workshop is completely different from what I was expecting. Originally, I thought it was going to be a dance teaching lesson. However, she blew my mind when she introduce her work and the way she see art. She uses dance and movement to experience what the art means.

We had a little practice outside of Krannert Art Museum after Jennifer Monson introduced her works. During the practice, she guided us to feel the environment with our eyes closed. She enhanced our senses to the surroundings by using her speech, the senses through our skin, our ear, or any senses other than eyes.

After that, we had a similar activity, which is experiencing the surroundings with eyes closed through movement, in Krannert Art Museum. I think the movement you reacted to can be what’s in your mind or what you are touching. I realized that I would be more sensitive to the sounds and the texture I touched. And because of that, I did move, which is not what I planned. It was really a funny and interesting experience.

In the next activity, two people were grouped. The group has to pick an art and perform a score. I and my partner picked the art showed above and the liminal space score. We had a really long conversation with Jennifer Monson about liminal space in this art. We had obsessed with what liminal space is in this art that we didn’t even realize the time was up.

After this workshop, I think using our own body and movement reacted to an artwork can really interpret a new meaning of what the art is showing comparing to using just vision. And you may discover new things you have never experienced.