Possibilities: Looking Toward the Future

Here was a personal statement for an honors interdisciplinary program at my college. (Unfortunately, I was not accepted.) And while I know I am much more unsure about my future than this piece suggests, I think my words do reflect some important and honest thoughts regarding my identity and future. 

My high school years were spent focusing on academic achievement in the classroom while strengthening my technique as a dancer and artist in the studio. This perfect life balance kept me happy and healthy. At Hunter College, a traditional liberal arts education with a focus on psychology helps quench my thirst for knowledge and personal love of learning. Meanwhile, dance enables a level of expression and emotional unleash unavailable elsewhere. These two interests, along with my male identity encourage me to pursue a career as a dance education professional. The XXXXX Program, with its broad offerings, would excellently fit my diverse interests.

As a male dancer in Western society, my own existence makes a statement that defies gender roles. Men dancing is regarded as taboo and ridiculed heavily in the media and society alike. In the dance community itself, I face a similar level of unacknowledged oppression. My earlier personal experience has revealed the darker side of dance; condescending comments and behaviors on the behalf of instructors, my fellow dancers, and popular dance professionals in the media, toward men who dance. This said, I remain optimistic for dance’s future, and I aim to contribute toward this end.

With the identities dancer/choreographer/educator I hope to inform future generations of dancers of this process in hopes of restructuring society. Beneath this hefty ambition lies the more practical goal of creating a better experience for young boys and men who dance: to remind them they are not alone and to empower them by bringing to light the reality of their experiences through thorough research in dance education focused on the male experience.

            I have taken a large selection of social science related classes which have invigorated my desire to be a joint educator/advocate for social change. For the remainder of my stay at Hunter, I would like to focus on psychology. The scope of psychology is broad; I enjoy it because it serves my joint interests in education and the individual in relationship to society. Furthermore, as a dancer, the link between body and mind examined in psychology offers useful material I would love to explore and learn to incorporate into my craft.

            As a Dance major at Hunter also involved in the Hunter College Dance Company, on a daily basis I am physically conditioning my body, but most importantly, I am preparing myself as an artist of the future. As a choreographer, I am working to master the art of movement to communicate the knowledge my own experience as a male dancer and the insight on the human mind academic classes in the social sciences have equipped me with. Dance’s potential for providing entertainment as well as education on social issues provides a wonderful medium I will continue to take advantage of in the future.

            As expressed, I cannot leave either my academic/dance interests behind, for they are both a part of me. Bereft of one or the other, my life feels empty. Therefore, I aim to use my aptitude in both academics and dance to transform the dance education landscape one small step at a time. The XXXXX Program, with its emphasis on interdisciplinary study, would complement my own academic, artistic, and career goals perfectly by setting me on a path to become an informed, well-rounded dance education professional and citizen of this world.