Berea College

[caption id="attachment_578" align="alignleft" width="291"]<img id="longdesc-return-578" class=" wp-image-578" src="https://www.berea.edu/president/wp-content/uploads/sites/11/2020/04/AJBodnar-300x200.jpg" alt="AJ Bodnar" width="291" height="195" longdesc="https://www.berea.edu/president?longdesc=578&amp;referrer=577"> AJ Bodnar[/caption]

During the COVID-19 Pandemic, many in the Berea College community submitted their unique perspectives on the situation to President Roelofs to share with campus. The following is the first in a series that will appear here at Berea Beloved. 

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

Let It Be a Dance by A.J. Bodnar

I play music for the dance classes in Health and Human Performance. It’s heaven. In the course of any given week, I may play modern jazz, improvisations, ballet, Argentine tangos, contradances, swings, waltzes, square dances, Morris dances, English dances, Danish dances, Appalachian folk dances, Scottish dances, dances from antiquity, and this last semester, even the Charleston. But now keyboard’s been unplugged – lights are off – dancing has stopped. And I’m sad.

And yet, I’m not as sad as I could be.

One part of me is looking forward; forward to the next time eyes and hands will lock, and groups of smiling students will once again celebrate life by dancing as Bereans have done for what seems like forever; forward to the next time our dance students eagerly watch their devoted teachers, at first imitating them, then finally flying under the power of their own wings; forward to the next class, or street dance, or Convo, or Berea Dances; forward to once again watching students’ journeys from the hangdog I’ve never danced before, to the exuberant Hey, check out THIS move!

Another part of me is looking back to when we had all just come back from spring break (five-hundred years ago), and how quickly the fear caused by COVID-19 gripped the classes. It was a bit of a shock watching the panic set into the faces of the student, even before anyone knew much about the virus or what was to come.

It’ll be agonizingly long before we dance again, and interesting in the interim to see how our particular classes will lend themselves to online work (the touch, the sound, the look, the hold, the smile, the contact all being so integral to dance). Between now and whenever I’m privileged to hit the first notes again, however, there’s no doubt our professors will have it all worked out. Soon, not soon enough, but soon – we will experience that sweet anticipation as across the campus we hear dance instructors count off, Five, six, seven, eight!

core/freeform

[caption id="attachment_578" align="alignleft" width="291"]<img id="longdesc-return-578" class=" wp-image-578" src="https://www.berea.edu/president/wp-content/uploads/sites/11/2020/04/AJBodnar-300x200.jpg" alt="AJ Bodnar" width="291" height="195" longdesc="https://www.berea.edu/president?longdesc=578&amp;referrer=577" /> AJ Bodnar[/caption]

During the COVID-19 Pandemic, many in the Berea College community submitted their unique perspectives on the situation to President Roelofs to share with campus. The following is the first in a series that will appear here at Berea Beloved. 

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

Let It Be a Dance by A.J. Bodnar

I play music for the dance classes in Health and Human Performance. It’s heaven. In the course of any given week, I may play modern jazz, improvisations, ballet, Argentine tangos, contradances, swings, waltzes, square dances, Morris dances, English dances, Danish dances, Appalachian folk dances, Scottish dances, dances from antiquity, and this last semester, even the Charleston. But now keyboard’s been unplugged – lights are off – dancing has stopped. And I’m sad.

And yet, I’m not as sad as I could be.

One part of me is looking forward; forward to the next time eyes and hands will lock, and groups of smiling students will once again celebrate life by dancing as Bereans have done for what seems like forever; forward to the next time our dance students eagerly watch their devoted teachers, at first imitating them, then finally flying under the power of their own wings; forward to the next class, or street dance, or Convo, or Berea Dances; forward to once again watching students’ journeys from the hangdog I’ve never danced before, to the exuberant Hey, check out THIS move!

Another part of me is looking back to when we had all just come back from spring break (five-hundred years ago), and how quickly the fear caused by COVID-19 gripped the classes. It was a bit of a shock watching the panic set into the faces of the student, even before anyone knew much about the virus or what was to come.

It’ll be agonizingly long before we dance again, and interesting in the interim to see how our particular classes will lend themselves to online work (the touch, the sound, the look, the hold, the smile, the contact all being so integral to dance). Between now and whenever I’m privileged to hit the first notes again, however, there’s no doubt our professors will have it all worked out. Soon, not soon enough, but soon – we will experience that sweet anticipation as across the campus we hear dance instructors count off, Five, six, seven, eight!

LOADING