Since times immemorial people have found different ways to express their feelings and emotions when words cannot provide a proper way of expression of thoughts, ideas, and feelings of a person. Dance has always been the symbolic synthesis of music and movement in space.
Dance can be considered a language of the human body that is capable of expressing a person’s inner world. There has always been some magic in dancing, and every dance is unique as it is impossible to imitate the dancing movement of some other person with absolute accuracy. The symbolism of dance has been enhanced in the short stories under consideration, And the Soul Shall Dance by Wakako Yamauchi and Silent Dancing by Judith Ortiz Cofer. The themes of dancing are used by both authors in their short stories and great significance is attributed to them. However, the themes of a dance signify different symbolic meanings implied by the authors: if in Yamauchi’s short story the theme of a dance stands for a temporary rescue and escape of Mrs. Oka from the awful reality of life in emigration, Cofer makes use of the theme of dance as the reflection of the life of Puerto Rican people in America.
There is only one “dancing” character in Yamauchi’s literary work and though the woman is not the protagonist of the short story, the theme of dancing becomes a central one due to the strength and bitterness of the author’s idea shown with the help of dance. The Oka family are Japanese emigrants in America and the whole story shows their life through the prism of vision of the narrator and the protagonist of the story, a young Japanese girl named Masako. Her opinion about Mrs. Oka changes in the course of the short story: at first, she describes the woman as strange, then as different, later as insane, and, finally, as a woman who “loved her sake” (Yamauchi 591-592). This change of the girl’s opinion about Mrs. Oka shows aggravation of the girl’s attitude to the woman, though the episode that describes Mr. Oka’s dance serves as the eye-opener for the reader and it can be interpreted differently from the point of view of the narrator who says that “the picture of her imagined grandeur … made [her] stir with discomfort” (Yamauchi 595). This discomfort provoked by Mrs. Oka’s dance can be interpreted as the awakening of the protagonist who used to blame a woman for alcohol addiction and even feared Mrs. Oka and her strange behavior.
A dance reveals the secret of a miserable woman: it becomes the only possible way for her to escape from the reality that tortures her and has broken her will making her find her refuge in sake. Secret dancing becomes a ritual of returning to her native Japan. Dance is a kind of magic for her, it is the way to find a reunion with her beloved, a man “of poor reputation” the parents parted her with (Yamauchi 592). Dance is also the means of finding equilibrium. As dancing is commonly associated with women, it somehow atones for Mrs. Oka’s drinking that is typical of men and so strange for a Japanese woman.
Since dancing and music are two things that create harmony, dancing without music can be considered something unnatural. Such is the life of Puerto Rican migrants who move to the United States because of the authoress’ father’s military service. The authors describe their life as full of emotional and moral difficulties starting with the language barrier, such as the problems with food as the girl’s mother “cooked only those products whose labels she could read” (Cofer 618). Emigrants were unhappy in the strange surrounding, even the father, who wanted to “assimilate” his family could not satisfy his desire “to live away from the barrio” (Cofer 618). The whole life of emigrants is reflected in their dance at the New Year party. Just as dance seems “both comical and sad” and, what is more, absurd so is the life of people in a strange country (Cofer 620). However, the phrase: “Give the dancers room to move” shows that people will struggle for their life (Cofer 622). Dance also becomes the embodiment of the girl’s memory of her childhood in America.
As for the common features of the analyzed stories relating to the theme of dancing it they, the episodic character of the dance in both storied should be mentioned. Though the information about dancing can be found in several lines of each short story, the meanings implied by the authoresses are very significant. Thus, the themes of dancing become central in both stories, hence their significance. What is more, the significance of the themes can be proved by the fact that the titles of both short stories are built around dancing and it also proves their importance.
Taking this all into consideration, it can be concluded that the theme of dancing is central in the analyzed short stories. In Yamauch’s short story it performs the function of the eye-opener for the narrator and the reader and it is also the key to Mrs. Oka’s temporary freedom, harmony, and a happy reunion with her beloved. As for Silent Dancing, dance is the reflection of the life of emigrants as absurd and problematic. However, making use of the same theme, Cofer states that her family will struggle for their life. In any case, the theme of dance in both stories serves to show the writers’ literary talent and describe problems of life in emigration.
References
Cofer, J. O. (1991). Silent dancing: A partial remembrance of a Puerto Rican childhood. Arte Publico Press.
Yamuchi, W. (1982). And the soul shall dance.