Globalization through Dance

I had never really considered how globalization has affected me before this assignment. I knew a tiny bit about it, but I didn’t think it really applied to me. Once I thought about this question though, I realized it affects me more than I could have ever thought. Everywhere around me now I see objects, people, and ideas from all around the world.  It amazes me how much I have that comes from other places. For example, most of my clothes are from other countries, which surprised me. But that hasn’t been my only experience with globalization.

One of my more memorable experiences of this topic has been through dance. I have danced all my life, and throughout my lifetime I have been introduced to all types of dances. I’ve done jazz, ballet, hip-hop, modern—once I even took an African dance class!

Through dance I have been introduced to different cultures, perspectives and people. My last two years in high school I was on the high school dance company, and each year we had an opportunity to try types of dances from different countries, at various camps and workshops. Sometimes the teachers were people from here, but had learned that dance style elsewhere. Others were actually from the place the style had originated. One year, my school had two companies (one from Mozambique and the other from Taiwan) that showed us dances from their country and taught us a small section of one of those dances. I loved it!  Their cultures and history showed through their dances, and I learned about their country even though I couldn’t understand a word they said. It was interesting to me that the Taiwan dancers danced to live music, which I had never done before but I thought was cool! I thoroughly enjoyed that experience, getting to see a culture I had never before heard of or even seen.  I met these people who had different backgrounds than me, and although we had little in common, I still learned from them through something we both understand—dance.

Ever since then I have wanted to travel the world. I’ve wanted to visit the places I’ve learned about. There are countries with such a rich and deep history, and traditions that have been passed down for hundreds of years. It is hard to find that in America, because it is such a young country. That is one of the great things about globalization; it can bring people of different backgrounds and cultures together.