It’s the Storytellers Who Will Save the World By Karen Burns

“Everyone wants to know that their life has meaning.” Andrew Stanton

Immediately after the World Trade Center was destroyed on September 11, 2001, the horror of the images and the stories that emerged were either devastating or inspiring. There wasn’t time to mourn immediately, there was too much need. The world rushed to offer help in any way they could. But I couldn’t get to New York. And what would I have offered if I could have made it? I came to the conclusion that my job, my life, was trivial.

I’ve always primarily been a dancer. As lovely as that is, no one NEEDS a pirouette when lives are being destroyed all around. I was appalled at my silly, insipid choice of career. It was fun, but quite unimportant. In 2001 I was a new dance professor at Chandler Gilbert and Mesa Community Colleges, and married with two daughters, who were a tiny four and five years old. But I needed to help New York! I raised and donated funds, my girls had a lemonade stand for the NYFD. It wasn’t enough. I was grasping at straws at how to comfort a city across a continent, and completely ignoring what was right In front of me asking for a peanut butter and jelly sandwich or how to do a pirouette. It all seemed so trivial, just a drop in the bucket of what could actually make a difference.

In hindsight, I see that raising people to be responsible citizens and teaching anything, is not trivial. But, just by questioning the usefulness of dance led me to an article in the New York Times about the global sense of uselessness following September 11. I remember only one thing from that article: “It’s the trivial that makes us glad to be alive, so go to the movies, the theatre, concerts, dance, sing, listen and tell the stories that move your soul.” I’ve been pondering this thought since 2001. And I firmly believe this to be true. Well, dance is trivial and a luxury, but it is a storytelling art form that brings wonder and delight and a break from the disappointments around us. Just like storytelling in any art form. This is how we hold on to our humanity in light of the worst parts of living.

After the New York Times article, I started listening to my students with more empathy and encouraging them to tell their own stories in any way they could. I began, at first very quietly, telling them my own stories of struggle and the one success in my choices. As a choreographer I try to create a story that is inspired by the music, which means we tell the songwriters story with bodies. Our stories told in class; mine, theirs, and the music’s, brought us all much closer and ultimately changed us all by the end of that semester. I remain close to so many of my students from the last 21 years. That semester was not trivial. It was vital, for all of us. As storytellers we speak for the human spirit. Even though I wasn’t a first responder on 9/11, I know choosing the creative arts is not trivial, it’s essential.

(I started teaching Casey (pictured at the top of the post) to play the piano when he was 5. I had to tell stories about the music to get him motivated to read music. It worked. He’s 20 now and starring on Broadway telling Cameron Crowe’s story in the musical Almost Famous. This photo is from 10/13/2022. I actually made it to New York.)

Comments

[Dee Dee]

Karen, this is an amazing reflection. I am so glad that you came to the conclusion that dancing is not trivial. the Arts gives us much needed relief from the realities of the world. Thank you for sharing your journey.
Diana