Dance as Influenced by my Culture Kyndra Kelley

“But I’m just gonna shake, shake, shake!” we screamed at the top of our lungs as we danced and shook our bodies to the beat of the music, realizing we had just been on a three-hour long roller coaster of song, dance, emotion, and wonder with Taylor Swift in Kansas City and it was coming to a close. Sophia and I acted out our part from the previous month’s dance recital finale piece that was performed to the same TS song. After we were done recreating our dance, we simultaneously opened our phones to send videos of Taylor performing the song to our Advanced Ballet class’s group chat, claiming we were having major “war flashbacks” to the countless hours spent in the studio working on that piece. The music brought together all of my friends and I at the concert, made Sophia and I break into choreographed dance, and connected us to all of our fellow dancers and Swifties at home.

Although Swiftie culture is definitely something I identify with, it is not necessarily how I was raised or something most of my family values. I was raised in a very white Christian, somewhat Southern family. My immediate family lives in Southern Illinois, in the suburbs of St. Louis, Missouri. My mom’s side of the family is spread out across Southern...