EKU Professor Marianne McAdam learned that dance was the universal language when it came to making friends with youths in Japan.

Eastern Professor Discovers Universal Language: Dance
By Andy McDonald

If you ask EKU professor Marianne McAdam her opinion about what constitutes the universal language, she just might tell you it is dance.

McAdam learned first hand, having been one of five local artists to travel to Japan last fall as part of an annual cultural exchange program between Madison County and the Yamanashi Prefecture of Japan.

Teaching dance to Japanese youths might sound easy, but McAdam soon found that culture shock can present some unexpected challenges. While teaching a group of middle school students, McAdam found her Japanese pupils didn’t quite know what to make of America’s freewheeling dance style.

Some Japanese students at the Paul Rusch Festival Yatsugatake County Fair tried their hand at the Charleston, under the guidance of EKU professor Marianne McAdam.

“I had this experience that’s a nightmare for all teachers where nobody will do anything you say,” McAdam joked. “They were so petrified of moving, holding hands with guys. But most of all, the expressiveness of doing things like the hustle, the John Travolta stuff. I went back to doing the Hitchhiker and the Macarena - hand moves. That was safe.” McAdam had better luck with her eighth grade students, and she had some help from EKU student Kista Catron, who made the trip with help of EKU’s International Education Program.

“I feel we had a great impact on their social dance skills, and we may have started a new wave of Travolta disco,” said Catron.

McAdam said the initial challenge of getting students to dance highlighted some important lessons for her about the difference between American and Japanese culture.

“Our culture is so unique, our movement is so different because of the African and Latin exposure,” McAdam said. “Since Africans came to America, they influenced how we move. It’s very expressive, whereas Japanese culture is very conservative, very small gestures. So the stuff Americans do is just so out there – not at all what their culture is about.”

Japanese youths are exploring more of American culture, which McAdam said could have a downside. “Japanese children in particular are into Western everything. They are not paying attention to their own culture and I hope they won’t necessarily pick up everything American,” McAdam said.
The exchange program was initially launched in 1986 in connection with Kiyosato Educational Experiment Program (KEEP), an initiative that was established by Paul Rusch, an Episcopal missionary and Louisville resident who helped Japan rebuild its devastated economy after World War II.

McAdam said her adventures in the Land of the Rising Sun yielded other valuable lessons.
“I’ve certainly taken away the idea that one should be gracious,” McAdam said. “It also inspired me to push the idea that our kids all need a second language. We’re so pompous in thinking that English should always be spoken. So many of them (Japanese) knew English. It was humbling.”

In turn, McAdam expressed hope that the Japanese would take a cue from their American visitors, especially after meeting Madison County women who are successful in both business and public service.

“I think they gleaned from us the idea that women can be leaders and should be respected equally. I hope they retain their culture, but I hope something that continues to change is that women become equal,” McAdam said.

As the Paul Rusch Festival came to a close, a band struck up a rousing rendition of “When the Saints Come Marching In.” McAdam took the lead to form a dance/march line that quickly grew, sweeping up bystanders in a wake that soon spanned the infield around the stage.

“To me that’s the joy of dancing,” McAdam said. “You can always find something that will bring people together – to have them experience that feeling that we’re all one people despite our different cultures.”

Written by Andy McDonald - BereaOnline.com Contributing Editor