Before learning what I’ve learned in this class I didn’t think dance was very in depth, as far at leadership, context, and reflection. I just thought dance was movement. This class has already taught me so much but leadership sticks out. I've learned that dance is a great way to build leadership and also follow it, leadership played a big role in dance. That’s why I choose to interview an elder and see if they ever noticed how leadership works within dance, and to find how how much dance and leadership has changed over the years. I decided to interviewed Teray Allan I've only known Teray for a little over a month, but he's helped me out several times during that time so I felt comfortable asking him to sit down and do this interview. Teray is an academic advisor here at Arizona State University, works directly with student athletes. Teray is 25 years old, from Houston, Texas. During the interview I asked about his background in dance or music and he explained that as a kid he was involved with African cultural dance. Cultural dance was something that ran deep in his family. Teray described leadership as being a huge part in African dance, listening to instructions were a big part of his experience with dance.
Teray has enjoyed dance throughout his life, it helps him physically “stay in shape”, and it had also helped his community back home in Dallas. As Teray got older he faded away from the African dances and started to listen to more and more hip pop and R&B. Teray enjoyed listening to Usher and R. Kelly, so that's what he started dancing to. He described the dances like they were extremely simple, with slow movements. But he explained how you could feel the emotion within the dances.
Dance was a big part of him and his community as well, people would come together for sporting events and while everyone was around dance was a huge part of the fun. He said dance brought the best out of his community. I asked Teray a few more questions about leadership as it related to dance during his time kid, he explained that in most R&B groups there was a leader. A leader who lead in vocals and also dance performances, they would be in the front leading the others. He also spoke about how there were leaders who brought people together, and leaders who started up dance groups in the neighborhood to get young people involved in his community.
After talking about his community i went on to ask if he's personally noticed any change in leadership in general, he replied by saying less and less people are willing to lead. Then I asked about how dance has changed since he was my age(18). Teray explained how there's more body movement, dance now a days involves the entire body. Just like the newer music, it's “faster and harder to pick up on rather than the older slow R&B” that used to be popular. Overall Teray taught me a lot about R&B and how leadership is used in dance and music. He helped me understand how dance chanced the environment of his community back home in Dallas, and just how much dance has changed over the years.