Well, obviously, I had to do some reflection in which I also talked about dance, because it is the only hobby I have been able to keep doing since the day I started it.

I’m going to give you a little bit of context on my experience in dance. When I was 7, my mom wanted my sister and I to start some kind of sport, and just as she thought about it, a publicity pamphlet appeared in our building of a new dance academy being open very near. So my mom took us there and wee could choose what type of dance we wanted to do. My sister and I both chose funky as it was what our friends did, nevertheless Sara (the teacher and director of the school) asked if we would like to also oin the belly dance class for kids. We didn’t know what that was, so she explained that is what Shakira dances. Obviously as a fan of her we both said yes immediately. Shortly after, I gave up funky and stayed in belly dance and now its been 10 years and counting.

Now, we get into the actual topic of the page. The other day in class we had a presentation on the experience of architecture. Some basic concepts that affect it and what it transmits. I realized how the experience of designing a building as well as how it presents to the world is very similar to how dance does.

Dance seeks the movement of the body through space, architecture seeks to create this space, ordered and hierarchical in a spatial composition.

Leonardo da vinci

In class we have seen how architecture is an art on which architects build a space that has a function, meaning and aesthetic. We use a space we already have and build something to give it a function and satisfy human’s needs. Its a place that must have a context or meaning, rhythm, movement and aesthetic as well as unity, lighting, colour and texture. Every building has its meaning, it expresses something which you can percive due to the way it was built, the place where it sits, the colors and texture of the materials used and the light it recieves and how it recieves it.

In dance, this is all the same. A dancer takes a space and fills it with their movements, creating an atmosphere, expressing something. When you are creating a choreography to perform, it is very important to take into account, not only the right movements to express your intention, but you also must think about the costume, think of what colour express better the feeling you are trying to portray, because not every material, colour or clothing expresses the same.

Rhythm is also found in both arts. In architecture we find sequence/repetition of shapes in space. Which the rhythm sets the time. In dance, there’s a rhythm to every song. Usually you can divide a song in sets of 4 or 8 times for which you set the move you want to make. It is very common to find repetition on songs, so the same happens with the movements in the choreography.

You also have to choose the lighting, if you want some element of the performance to stand out, you must take a spotlight which focuses on that one thing and so on. The light has a very big impact in movement. It allows to see that movement with the contrast between shadow and light. Here you can see a video of a work my teacher did in which lighting plays a big role, and then a video of how lighting affects on architecture using as an example Tadao Ando’s Church of light.

Unity is the relationship of the parts to the whole so that nothing should be removed or added. This can be applied to both. The way you link the dance moves and how they blend, they don’t always fit in together, so you have to try out different combinations until you find the right one , and the same happens with a construction when deciding the different elements and materials.

To conclude, all of these aspects can’t really be chosen without an initial intention. In order to create any kind of art really, you need an initioal meaning and context. You need to know the emotion or message that you want to present so you can decide how to continue.