A New Normal

Abstract

In this year's Arts First weekend at Harvard in early May, the College's many performing groups staged an extravaganza of musical, theatrical, and dance performances, in nine different venues simultaneously and with a new group coming on each half-hour in each venue for four hours. Both the quality and the variety of talent was extraordinary. Many of the short performances on this occasion were samples of regular concerts and shows, which occur year-round and in many cases require heavy time commitment for rehearsal and practice. There were no fewer than five undergraduate orchestras, eleven a cappella singing groups, seventeen dance companies, and 61 theatrical productions at Harvard this year. Almost none of this activity received academic credit. How can this vast expanse of extracurricular artistic performance be sustained? First, the talent pool in the student body is very large, and students spend time on music and the arts for their intrinsic rewards. Many of our students participated in music or drama before coming to Harvard. Even though few of our students will make careers as professional performers, these interests are so important to them that they will devote countless hours to them while also pursuing unrelated academic interests, and other extracurricular activities as well. Second, students don't restrict themselves to the activities with which they arrived at Harvard. Open-mindedness and a willingness to learn new things are high values, and talents seem to be mutable. I happen to be the faculty adviser to the Harvard Ballroom Dance Team. This group receives little institutional support except for practice space, and few of its members had danced before coming to Harvard. Yet the team has developed remarkable skill and grace, and regularly succeeds in national competitions. One of the team members was a varsity swimmer when she began at Harvard. Another learned the love of dance from watching his roommate. Third, students' diverse backgrounds and creative enthusiasm seem to produce an endless variety of new performance groups. At the Dance Festival during Arts First, we had not only the Dance Company, which performed modern dance, and the Ballet Company, which performed a classical repertoire, but the Crimson Dance Team, which "combines athleticism and artistry through a repertoire of jazz, funk, hip-hop, and lyrical styles," and the South Asian Association, which performed "traditional South Asian folk dances from the North Indian (Pumjabi) Bhangra and the West Indian Garba and Dandia Raas (Gujarati) traditions." …