Ballet

The folkloric ballet really taught me to see just how proud many Ecuadorians are of their many cultures. I was able to visualize the way Ecuadorians tend to value unity and the contributions of everyone to the community. The ballet showed each performer as an important part of each dance, as they all worked together through each story that was told through dance.
My favorite parts were the dance with the deer, the ribbon dance around the pole, the dance with the fluorescent flower wreaths, and when the audience was involved with the ballet itself. Each of these dances, I felt, as if they each told an important part of Ecuadorian history and culture. They also told very unique stories through only dance. I enjoyed when the audience was included with the performance when clapping along with the music and, at the end of the performance, when the dancers chose audience members to dance with them.

Dance seems to be one of the best ways to serve as a universal form of nonverbal communication because there are no language barriers are involved. Anyone who is watching can figure out, through context, what the story a dance is trying to tell or what lesson the dancers are trying to communicate.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Carly V.- Blog Post #16

In blog post #4 Carly mentions how her family will hug and kiss people, even those they do not know. This is a way to use gestures as a form on communication, even if you do not share the same language. I though that this example showed effective intercultural communication. Because I did not speak much Spanish before going on the trip, using this form of communication was a large part of how I navigated conversations and relationships with the people that I met.  In blog post #6 Caitlin also displayed an effective form of intercultural communication. In her post she was referring to her time at Neque y Mas Neque. Because she was not completely confident in her Spanish speaking abilities, she found other ways to connect and communicate with the children. For her, this alternative form of communication came from dance. Dance was a universal form of communication between her culture, and the  culture of the ...
Read more

Meng - Blog 16

1. In Paige's Blog(#14), she mentioned that she used some nonverbal communication to communicate with teachers when they were cooking. It is an effective way of intercultural communication. I totally agree that sometimes, if you don't know how to express yourself, body language helps a lot, and it even works better than language. 2. In Blog12, Tyessa said that she feel not close with her host family, and usually, they don't communicate with each other too much, which makes she felt upset because she wants to get closer to them. In my points of view, it can be seen as an ineffective communication. I think in the process of communicating with people, sometimes you should learn to be proactive. Break the silence first, and take the initiative to communicate with others. If you are especially enthusiastic about other people, they will feel it. 3. An example of effective communication came from  Linsey. She talked about how the communication way changed ...
Read more

Blog Post Fourteen: The Market, Neque y Mas Neque, and Cooking

Image
Neque y Mas Neque The Mercado Artisinal is a great metaphor for Ecuadorian culture. The market is filled with handmade clothing, blankets, pottery, jewelry, and so many more items that are staples of Ecuadorian culture. All of these items also tend to be made or filled with bright colors which is common here in Ecuador. Another way the Mercado Artisinal is a metaphor for Ecuadorian culture is the fact that you negotiate the price of the item. In Ecuador, it is common to negotiate prices in markets, at street vendors, and even in taxis. The biggest thing I learned from the kids while working at Neque is that it doesn’t matter whether a kid comes from the U.S., Germany, or Ecuador or whether they are in poverty, the middle class, or they are rich, they are all the same. Every kid wants to play, to learn, and to have someone care about them and take an interest in their life. During our time at Neque I also learned that doing service work, no matter the size of your contribution,...
Read more