The goal for each child was to express his or her true individuality by fitting neatly into a larger whole. While making it look effortless, you must concentrate not only on performing all of your own movements correctly, but you must be highly alert to everyone else. As the line you are in moves forward, for example, you have to make sure you're moving at the same speed as everyone else, so you don't get ahead or lag behind. You also have to keep an eye out to make sure you're maintaining an equal spacing between yourself and the persons on both sides. Yet, as the children did these things, we didn't get any feeling of regimentation.
Most people feel their individuality is cramped, made less by others.
As we go through life, our success as human beings will depend on whether we see that being fair to others is the way to take of ourselves, assert our personality. Donna Lamb, who taught dance for many years, including African and Caribbean dance, from the Aesthetic Realism point of view, is an Aesthetic Realism Consultant on the faculty of the Aesthetic Realism Foundation. She is also a regular columnist for The African Sun Times and the San Antonio Register, and articles by her on issues of social and economic justice have appeared in newspapers nationwide. All rights reserved.