Ballet Studio Discourse

Community
RWS 1301

Alexandra Grajeda | Prof. Laura Castruita | 2-12-17

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Ballet Studio Discourse Community

Introduction

Jet, Pli, Tendu. These are some words that may sound foreign to a number of

people who do not know the French language, even more specifically when it is put

together with a series of movements and steps. However, if you say these words to a

person who has possibly taken any form of classical ballet training in their lives, the

person would automatically know the terms spoken and their meaning. This person/ or

Dancer, would understand these ballet terms because of the discourse community they are

part of, that being one of Ballet dancers, specifically one of a Ballet school or studio.

According to John Swales, a Professor of linguistics, a discourse community id basically

a community that shares its own form of communication through speech or text. (Swales,

1990) Swales Emphasized six characteristics that were important in identifying where a

group was considered a discourse community or not.

Being part of the Ballet community, allows me some insight into what goes on in

a Ballet class, and how everyone who is also part of the community works together to

create classically trained dancers and precise productions. When a young dancer joins a

ballet class they are immediately immersed into all that is Ballet terminology and history,

in order to begin the physical process of learning Ballet. A Ballet studio consist of

students, assistant instructors, head instructors, and the owners of the studio, who usually

tend to have a great amount of dance experience under their belts. When part of a studio

everyone is usually accessible to each other when it is necessary for any form of

assistance. Almost anyone who has been trained in Ballet will have the knowledge to help

anyone else, no matter which instructor you go to.

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Literature Review

In the text Swales gives six key elements that are, according to him, the only way

to define whether a group is a discourse community or not. These six point include: a

broadly agreed set of common public goals, mechanisms of intercommunication among

its members, participatory mechanisms primarily to provide information and feedback,

utilizes and possess one or more genres in the communicative furtherance of its aims, and

specific acquired lexis, and a threshold level of members with a suitable degree of

relevant content and discoursal expertise. (Swales, 1990)

Swales gives great detail on the specifics of each of these key elements, in order

to explain why they are so necessary in telling discourse communities apart from other

similar communities. In the text Swales speaks about how discourse communities

develop their own lexis and genres, and usually only involve members who have some

form of credible expertise in the community, because of this any outside person would

not be considered part of the community. In a book I have acquired over the years, Ballet

Basics by Sandra Noll Hammond, there is a particular part where it states Enrollment in

a beginning ballet class should-but often does not- depend on the permission of the

instructor after a personal interview. This sounds quite a bit like the idea Swales gave

about how only certain members are allowed into the group based on their own

knowledge. A dance studio, or more traditionally a school of ballet, can also have the

same power of choosing who is to be accepted and who is not. Auditions to join the

school, or studio are also commonly used to accept new member that might already have

a strong knowledge of the art. The dancer who is successful at an audition will enter a

relatively small, intimate community. (Hammond, 2004) Hammond also states, Most
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Ballet Studio Discourse Community

American ballet companies have fewer that thirty dancers and some chamber ballet

companies have only six to ten dancers. (pg. 128)

Discussion

A dance studio is essentially a whole organized machine of people whose

common goal is to produce perfectly trained dancers and to create beautiful productions

and performances. This is where Swales first point ties into the ballet studio discourse

group. Everyone who is working within the studio; students, instructors, choreographers,

accompanists, owners, etc., has the same goal to accomplish, they just have different

parts to put in in order to achieve this goal. This leads to Swales second criteria; the

community must have intercommunication among its members. As stated before

everyone in the studio much have communication with the other staff and students in

order to clearly put together their ways of organizing the way their student learn and are

taught as well as how they are going to put together their newest recitals. All staff and

students have a job to fulfill in order to have a successfully run ballet studio.

A studio may provide not only annual or biannual recitals to promote their

business, but can also provide workshops and have flyers and other forms of getting

information across to other dancers in order to recruit a few new members. Studios will

also find means to provide information within its own community in order to keep

members up to date with upcoming meeting and events. This ties into Swales third

criteria. The fourth criteria speak of having genres within the community, genres are often

types of text used within communities, as a ballet dancer you start off learning all the

history and as mentioned before terms of ballet. Students have a range of texts that are
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shared amongst ballet dancers that provide various sources of information to expand the

knowledge of dancers. Once the dancer has grasped the terminology and the meaning

behind them they are ready to begin the physical part where connections are made from

verbal cues to physical movement using specific terms for each step. This is where the

like communication between teachers, students, and other dancers in the ballet class

create the term used by Swales are their lexis. Lexis is the type of terminology used for

specific groups of people or organizations. Ballet most definitely has its own lexis; the

language of ballet is predominantly French. Hammond states, All ballet exercises, steps,

body positions, and movement directions have French names, when understood, these

words can greatly simplify directions that a teacher might otherwise have to use. (pg.

10)

The final criteria that Swales provides is that of the community having members

with specific knowledge of the subject the group is based on. Studios have staff members

that are fluent in the knowledge of ballet and its techniques in training. The art of ballet is

extremely specific and precise that they are required to have credible instructors. The

students that are part of the studio or are planning on joining also have a solid grasp on

the concept of ballet, and they will study to further what they already know.

Conclusion

Based on all the six elements provided by John Swales, a Ballet Studio fits fairly

well into the category that is a discourse community. A ballet studio strives to reach the

common goal that is set by using their genres, lexis, and most importantly their

intercommunication between members of the facility. Learning more about the way a
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studio works together might provide more information as to the finer details of how they

set themselves up to get business done. Swales has made a simplified list of ways to tell

communities apart, and allowed an educated decision to be made on whether or not a

ballet studio counted as a discourse community.

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References
Hammond, S. N. (2004). Ballet Basics. Avenue of the Americas, New York:
McGraw-Hill .

Swales, J. (1990). The Concept of Discourse Comminuty. Retrieved from

wordpress.com: https://rhetwolf.files.wordpress.com/2014/08/swales-
discourse-community.pdf
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