More Haitian Dance

I took a class with Blanche Brown, a revered teacher of Haitian dance (who taught my regular teacher). I don't think I have ever met a dance teacher with her incredible warmth, presence, and, for lack of a better word, power. She*kicked*my*butt. She corrected me 18 million times, it seemed. Over and over, 'till I got it somewhere in the ball park of the right steps. She told me to feel the drums, to respond to them--I've never been corrected so many times in one class! She told me that now I had a chance to unlearn everything I knew about dance, that my mind was telling my body this was much harder than it really was. It's like she took one look at me and knew exactly where my resistances were. And of course, everything emotional came up--not because of her corrections, of course, but as I danced and tried to break through my hesitations, all the old feelings came up that plagued me from elementary school through college and beyond, that I was awkward, stupid, not even worthy of the degree I sought, worthy only of betrayal and being made fun of, of being rejected and treated like I was "less than". Those, of course, are the feelings that need to come up and go away in order to give over to the body and the dance. I wonder if it happens for everyone.