“1…2…3…” I pause the music. “Let’s try again”. While I smile reassuringly, I struggle with finding the balance of not coming off as assertive and critical, but still pushing the dancers to their fullest potential. I struggled to compose the students into synchronized performance. Choreographing a piece for the Munchyan Dance Center’s cultural event for Armenian History Month was both demanding and gratifying. I worked formidably to design the flowing transitions and intricate formations, highlighting dancers’ strengths while taking into account their weaknesses. Learning and adapting to the nuances of a given “flaw” allowed me to compose comprehensive choreography while ensuring everyone’s strengths would shine. As a choreographer I not only had to instruct, but I had to listen and make myself approachable to others for questions or assistance. This experience allowed me to create atmospheres for effective communication, approaching others with purpose and empathy— a skill I furthered at AYA. Join me as I reflect on my 3rd week at AYA.
Extending the boundaries of the choreography through my imagination, while still conforming to other limitations, enabled me to create a performance that balanced creativity with precision. Dance, music, and art directly reciprocate the power of imagination. Music and dance emerged as a form of expression to break boundaries and create voice, political fulfillment, and identity” As forms of civic engagement to gain representation, these movements transform the conventions of “normalcy”. Similar to conveying a story through my improvised dance, I felt it was my job to speak my story and advocate for my Armenian identity. This week, we were handed cameras with the task of a photo essay, “Take photos of anything and everything you think is in the slightest bit significant to you”. I crafted my essay around an Armenian immigrant-owned business to underscore the perseverance and entrepreneurial spirit of my Armenian community.
Exploring such businesses allowed me to not only connect further back to my roots and create a voice for my community, but it also taught me the power of ideas, initiative, and the future I create for myself. While fate plays a role, our state of being is profoundly influenced by our choices and self-perception beyond external factors. On Tuesday, an AYA panel of previous cohort speakers came in and shared their takeaways from the program as well as its manifestation in their lives. Sharing ideas like, “Retire your fears, they’re tired”, “There’s no time like the present “, and “Life is going to live”. I connected with them all. While the other professionals at AYA were intriguing, it was the speakers who truly resonated with me on a personal and emotional level because they expressed the exact position I was in.
On Wednesday, I led a discussion on undocumented immigrant education, specifically the DREAMers movement. I learned about undocumented youth education and their use of civic media platforms to advocate for their cause. “The act of coming out is about agency, power, and control over one’s own story.” Civic imagination is the “capacity to imagine alternatives to current social, political or economic institutions or problems. Put bluntly, one can not change the world unless you can imagine what a better world might look like.” (Henry Jenkins, USC). “Critical media production is the process by which students create alternative media that question dominant narratives while learning the codes of representation of their social words. (Stewart et. al. 2021) This inspired me. “The media needs more ME’s”, I thought. On Wednesday, I devised my vision of the societal future in 2060. As Henry David Thoreau once famously said, “This world is but a canvas to our imagination.” I had all the power, a future entirely based on my imagination and my depiction of the universe. These experiences reflected moments on the dance floor. Seeing each barrier (in life or on the dance floor) as an opportunity to learn has transformed my life. Just as teaching dance, civic engagement at AYA allows me to break barriers, challenging myself intellectually, spiritually, and mentally.
By – Milena Tarverdyan
References
Stewart, O. G., Scharber, C., Share, J., &
Crampton, A. (2021). Critical media production.
In The Handbook of Critical Literacies (pp. 105-
115). Routledge.
Jenkins, H., Peters-Lazaro, G., & Shresthova, S.
(Eds.). (2020). Popular culture and the civic
imagination: case studies of creative social
change. NYU Press.
Communicating Change 