American Stereotypes, Dancing, & Culture Jam

Hello all. Writing again in the late hours of night. Thankfully, after many glasses of water and some neck massages, my headache has alleviated. I’m unsure whether my aches had been caused by the change in altitude or the fact that I have stopped coffee. Either way, I’m just glad the pain is GONE.

Today we started off the day with an activity on stereotypes. After a discussion on the definition of stereotypes, we were asked to write down our own stereotypes of the countries represented in our cast. We were encouraged to write down the first thing that came to our heads, whether kind or not. This activity saddened me, as I found that my first reactions were either negative or, possibly worse, I knew nothing about the particular country. Many people chose to write only positives on the pieces provided, which helped to balance things. But I tried to take myself out of my clinical shoes and answer with my “ignorant gut instinct”.

After we all wrote down our comments, each country gathered to look at the comments and to prepare feedback for the group. Those of us from the United States were shocked to learn that WE had been writing the majority of the negative comments about our nation! In addition, someone (from outside the U.S., I believe) had mentioned that a common stereotype for those of us from the U.S. is that we have poor family values. This took us back a bit. We were able to rationalize that we do have a strong divorce rate, which could appear indicative of poor family values. However, when it came our time, we did bring back to the entire cast that although there are families of many forms, the “values” are still very strong.

This was an amazingly poignant activity, one that I wish EVERYONE could experience. Many stereotypes were dispelled (or proven) today.

After lunch was our first singing and dancing practices. I experienced a bit of embarrassment, as I didn’t pick up on things as I had years ago. Darn this aging crap! Time to get rid of this rust! I can’t get too frustrated. I get to do some stomp and salsa dancing J

Today’s schedule was extended until about 8pm, but well worth it. We had our culture jam, where cast members could showcase their talents and cultural performances. Though I had every desire to put something into the showcase, I couldn’t think of something that I could do that was “typical” of the United States. To some extend, we are a bit of a lost culture….or a non-culture culture. The bland majority?

However, the performances were amazing! My computer is refusing to connect now, but I will hopefully be able to paste pictures, which will be able to describe better what I had seen and felt. Truly amazing…including probably one of the best “beatbox” performances I have ever heard. I could barely sit in my chair; I wanted to dance so badly.