Students put on dancing shoes to 'unearth masculinity'
Celine Ryan, California Senior Campus Correspondent - Campus Reform
Towson University is holding a dance workshop titled “Unearthing Masculinity,” which encourages participants to confront their “views of masculinity” through dance and movement.
According to the Maryland university, the event is a “physically engaging workshop” during which “individuals will explore verbal conversations and physical conversations around the topic of Masculinity.”
Attendees will be encouraged to address, through dance, questions surrounding masculinity, such as “What is it? What is it not? How did you learn about it or come to know it? What do you/will you pass on about masculinity.”
“Using movement concepts and structures to enhance and further the discussions, participants will unearth assumptions, truths, and myths about their personal and societal views of masculinity,” the event description explains. “This is a fun and rich bonding experience for participants to explore and excavate their values, perceptions, and negotiate consciousness around masculinity.”
The class will be taught by Vincent E. Thomas, founder of VTDance, an “outlet for performance projects including solo, group, and collaborative choreographic endeavors.”
Thomas told Campus Reform that while the workshop is based in dance, it also includes “other art forms as well, such as creative writing and visual art.”
He added that the workshop “will begin with a warm-up that connects the body and mind, creating a safe space for all regardless of movement experience. This, I believe, is really important for participants to be full in their experience in a non-judgmental space.”
Thomas added that while the workshop is dance-focused, it is also “physical and dialogic,” explaining that “We will move, discuss, discover, move, discuss, explore, move, dream, share, activate, etc.”
The Towson workshop is a modification of VTDance’s standard workshop, “Fathers, Sons, & Other Guys,” which is geared toward helping “fathers and sons, extended family, and individuals [to] explore verbal conversations and physical conversations around the topic of Masculinity.”
“Unearthing Masculinity” is being sponsored by Towson’s Division of Inclusion and Institutional Equity, which also put on a three-part “Multiculturalism in Action” lecture series this semester.
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