I must admit, Dr. Mark Broomfield’s class was probably my favorite although I will admit that my love for dance might make this declaration a bit biased. I grew up listening to Spanish music so it comes to no surprise that I love dancing bachata, cumbia, anything! You name it. Walking into our classroom that Monday afternoon, I had about zero clue as to what our afternoon would consist of. This of course, is partly my fault for not bothering to look up Dr. Mark Broomfield in the Geneseo’s faculty directory— if I would have, I would have made the fascinating discovery that he is in fact the Assistant Professor of Dance Studies and Associate Director of the Geneseo Dance Ensemble. Whoops.
That day, we all got our groove on and let me tell you, I had no idea that a course could be so much fun! He pushed us to think innovatively and creatively and one of the things that most stoke out to me from our lecture was his approach to the idea of getting comfortable with being uncomfortable. What the hell does that mean? Well, I’ve had some time to truly meditate on Broomfield’s statement and what I have gathered and concluded since that day of our dancing lesson and lecture was that we are allowed to be multifaceted. If you are confused, I’d like to continue explaining this in further detail.
Just as Broomfield expressed to the class, the more you do something, the more you become it. We all perform, we perform as students, as friends, as siblings, as artists, the list goes on and on. We are all not just one thing. I have always struggled in finding my own place as a student and as a woman of color. I always felt that if I wanted to be a student, I would have to be JUST a student and that if I wanted to be an artist, I had to JUST be an artist. The class was refreshing in the sense that it really allowed me to realize that we are allowed to be creative, different, experimental and complex.