Our Conforming Culture

This video "Fearful Symmetries," performed by the Pennsylvania Ballet, brought an interesting perspective to contemporary American Culture. The piece reflected the under lying desire to fit in with everyone around you. In society today, people are constantly trying to blend in. A person feels comfortable conforming to American culture over finding individualism. When I was going through high school I felt the pressures of conformity. I wanted to be popular; and the only way to achieve that was by blending in. I thought being like everyone else would result in having more friends. I learned what makes you different is what others find attractive. By conforming you are creating relationships under false pretenses. People are not drawn to your ability to be like everyone else: people are drawn to your unique qualities. These attributes are the foundations of our personalities.

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The piece, "Fearful Symmetries," was choreographed by Peter Martin. The title alone relates to this theme in contemporary American Culture. After watching the piece I understood the immense power symmetry can have. This made the comfort conformity has so clear. The dancers open with a leap combination across the floor. Each female is linked by the hand with a male dancer. One couple moves from stage right to left and the other in opposition; synced together in perfect harmony.(0:20-0:22) The precision in their movement showed the desire to blend in together. The groups wanted to match the other. The dancers continually grow in size on the stage. Every time they build the amount of people. In American culture there is power in numbers. The more people who follow, the easier it is for one to conform. This dance made me see how our culture views individualism. In our society it is more acceptable to conform.

In one section of the piece there are eight dancers on stage; four males and four females. The dancers crossed each other with patterned movement in the shape of an "X".(0:33) There arms were in diagonal lines. One extended upward and the other one to the ground. They used a pas de chat to travel across the floor; switching the arms simultaneously.(0:34) Each male dancer stayed close to the female partner, mimicking the movement. (0:34-0:37) This section showed how conformity is portrayed in relationships. In American culture today, relationships with a partner of the opposite sex are the norm. All the movement was the same implying each relationship was the same. The last section of the dance was the most powerful. Dancers did a sissone to stage right with their leg extended in arabesque.(1:22) Their arms were in a 90 degree angle; the left arm shooting up towards the ceiling.(1:22) Next, the dancers switches weight and direction and quickly moved to the opposite diagonal.(1:24) Their leg was extended straight in front of them. The arms matched the angle of the leg; depicting a linear shape.(1:24) Last the dancers switched weight again by turning.(1:26) The leg was stretched on the floor as they did the low drag.(1:27) This movement repeats twice. There were approximately 25 dancers on stage moving together. Every angle and detail matched. Watching these weight shifts happen in unison really showed the power a group can have. It was clear by the end why our culture has an underlying desire to fit in. The power behind numbers intimidates individualism.