Day 89 and 90 – Rethinking our reliance on the arts as ancient

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Photo by Andreas Brunn on Unsplash
Day 89 and 90 – As I continue to prepare for Orientation and Theories of expressive arts Therapy, I have continued to think about and explore the Person-centered approach.  I was interested to read the first lines of the preface –

 

The expressive arts are ancient forms being rebirthed to bring much needed integration and balance into our world. In early times people knew well that dance, art, song, and storytelling were all part of the same process: that of being fully functioning and creatively human.

 

In 1993, this idea of the arts being “ancient forms being rebirthed” was one that was still very popular.  This glorification of the “people” of “early times,” is part of the exotification of the past.  And it is these ideas that we are wanting to think about critically.  I am just starting to understand what drives my discomfort with these ideas – first there is an assumption that “we” don’t understand this integration of the arts. Who is this we?  Do BIPOC people know that dance, art, song, and storytelling are all part of the same process?? Of being fully functioning and creatively human?  

 

According to Wikipedia, Hip-hop culture has four key elements – rapping, DJing, breakdancing, and graffiti.- here I see “dance, art, song, and storytelling” as part of the same process.  They go on to say,

Hip hop culture has spread to both urban and suburban communities throughout the United States and subsequently the world. These elements were adapted and developed considerably, particularly as the art forms spread to new continents and merged with local styles in the 1990s and subsequent decades. Even as the movement continues to expand globally and explore myriad styles and art forms, including hip hop theater and hip-hop film, the four foundational elements provide coherence and a strong foundation for hip hop culture.

 

I think the idea that we have not really appreciated Black aesthetics or recognized the ways the arts are not in need of “rebirthing” but rather instead our theory is in need of a recognition that as arts therapists we need to begin to appreciate the ways the arts are already embedded in culture, and that it has been our lack of integration between "theorists" and BIPOC communities that has led to this disconnection.

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