I believe one issue is that dance styles and their cultures have gone so mainstream that the real lineage and pure art form has been lost. It really is great in some cases that it has become more urban because more dancers and people are entertained and drawn to it but there is a downside. It becomes so evolved that it is lost entirely at times.
I think this is problematic because then it is like the pure form of the style has gone extinct. The vernacular no longer exists and the culture is no longer part of the story about the foundings or the way the style is danced. It is lost in translation that the new evolved styles will eventually be the only ones that exist if this was to persist.
The way I help repair the issue is to teach the traditional and vernacular to the outer circles and other dancers ALONG WITH the new evolved forms of the style/ technique. That way, the culture and history are still honored as well as the pioneers that helped define it as a style. It pays tribute to all the hard work, dedication, talent, determination and even the pain that went into creating the style and having it recognized as a true dance form.
A second issue is that dance studios that are supposed to be educating young dancers about dance styles and forms, are losing true concepts because of their intent to just reel in money from dancers and their parents. Everything is lost because they try to gain more and more students, cram them all into one class, hire less trained teachers because they are cheaper and in turn the dancers suffer and do not learn true dance forms simply because a studio is trying to make more money and become cheap.
I actually had this conversation with a co-worker that teaches hip-hop at the same studio that I teach at and we discussed how there is a tough decision to either compromise and teach styles that are watered down or what she called “urbanized” or just teach the true forms and lose students of money. Instead of teaching the true forms, we have to almost relent to teaching what the students want because of the type of commercialized dances they are seeing online or on tv and that is what they want to learn. Or you can teach the purer forms of the style, though they may be boring to the students, and lose money because they are no longer drawn in to the original styles and then they might not take the classes. It is almost a gamble. This need to cater to the students to bring them in is a huge fault that sweeps true dance forms aside. Back when I was training, since I wanted to be a dancer, I took any classes that was given to me and I had no say as to what I actually wanted to learn in each style of dance. I learned the true forms because the teachers created the classes and they were in charge, not the money, parents or students.
This is an extremely hard balance, especially when you have to comply with the studio owners’ ideals and teaching goals that they create for their studio as a whole. I would honestly only teach for a studio where I had more liberty to teach what I wanted and make my own syllabi for. In this way, I can teach the pure and true forms of specific styles without the fear of losing money or without being pretty much controlled by my students in exchange for their business and profits. Think less about the money and more about the art forms of the dance styles. Don’t try and conform to what the students want only to make a profit. Only offer the best training in the traditional and vernacular and let your work speak for itself so then the students will flock to you. But either way, you will be keeping the true forms alive.
