Mary Jane Warner fell in love with dance during a “foots-on” dance history class in graduate school.
“We actually got up and danced dances of the renaissance and the baroque period,” she explained. Soon afterwards she founded a dance company and toured performing the elegant movements of Baroque dance, the dance form that later evolved into ballet.
Warner now chairs a rapidly evolving dance department at York University, where a proliferation of dance forms has blossomed. Now a school that once focused on ballet and modern dance has opened it's arms — and dance studios — to the world.
York has now offered classes in African dance, Middle Eastern, Hip Hop, and, as of last semester, Chinese dance.
“I would say both ballet and Chinese dance have this beautiful flow of movement. [Chinese dance] always has a very liquid quality to it — a sense of lightness, of airiness, a beautiful sense of use of the arms. Something they have that I just love is props."
Warner said that props such as fans and long flowing sleeves and ribbons act as an extension of the dancer, allowing them to accentuate the dance movements and add greater symbolism.
“It’s really quite delightful to watch. I know my husband has fallen in love with Chinese dance too."
Last year, Warner attended the Divine Performing Arts Chinese New Year Spectacular in Toronto.
A fan of China's vast ethnic diversity of dance, Warner said she was struck by the variety of dance in the show and the dedication of the dancers.
“I think just to see the beauty of it is quite overwhelming... It’s a show that I would certainly encourage people to go see."
But while the proliferation of dance forms has been a boon to York, Warner said she did have some concerns about some contemporary dance forms like those seen in the music videos for hip-hop or rap musicians.
“Many young people really love this form of dance,” she said, although she believes the preteen students of this dance in competition schools are being taught moves that are too adult.
“They’ve come from a setting where ten-year-olds are wearing bras studded with sequins and low pants and so you're seeing their bellies and their breasts and they’re doing a lot of gyrating of the hips which is really is a very sexual sort of dance. It's not something that ten-year-olds should be encouraged to do."
Dr. Warner added that she thought many of the young dancers had no idea how sexual the movements were.
However, she has been impressed by the amazing feats of break-dancers spinning on their heads and throwing their bodies around in a way that amazes onlookers.
“If I were a young kid, I think it would be great to try."
In the end, said Warner, dance allows people to understand each other, something she sees in the students at York as they study dances from around the world.
“I think that that is one of the things that dance can do for us, to bring us harmony; people can dance without being able to speak the same language.”
