What is Dance?
 

I was asked to describe what dancing meant to me.  Dancing can be seen as different things to different people.  Ultimately, dancing is a means to an end.  Dance is a vehicle or expression through which one can communicate to others.  People choose cars and trucks based on how that vehicle allows them to feel the road, how it feels when turning a corner.  Dancers feel the floor much the same way.  They stop sooner and accelerate faster.  A dancer is like a fine-tuned machine.  Dancing is an ever growing process, a rose that never blossoms but to the on lookers.  Dancing is a lot of things to a lot of people.  It can be anything to anyone.  What would you like to gain from dance?
 

I often wonder what a dance instructor should be called: kinesiologist, movement analyst, balance control operator, teacher, or friend.  How should the dancer be known?  Should they be known as a move mentalist, performer, student, driver, or treasure hunter?  If dancers are treasure hunters, what are they looking for? The more I study dance, the more I learn that there is no end, but it is merely the journey that counts.  Jonathon Livingston Seagull had a similar realization about movement.  He learned that flying was not about speed, but one would in fact reach a point where flying would be unnecessary.  Neo, in The Matrix, also had such a realization when he no longer had to dodge the bullets of the Agents.  As stated above, dance is a means, not an end.  Use movement with others to brighten your life not to be your life.  Dance is a rose bud on the plant of life.  Treat it as so and you will be happier because of it.  You may get pricked from time to time, but when you learn how to handle a rose, it only becomes easier to share its beauty with others.  This is what dance means to me.
 

The Dancer's Creed: A Story

"I will enjoy the ride,"

I have seen the footprints in the manual.  I have tried them in my head, in the house… I have failed.  I see people dancing, they look so graceful, they move together, effortlessly, somehow moving in unison to a sound that I can not find in the music, in life.  I have learned the steps; they are not as challenging as I thought.  I am learning how each dance has its own characteristics, its own feelings, its own life.  I am learning to be anyone I want, so long as I can put up the right dance frame.  (That still gets me from time to time.)  I know what it means to have “grace”; I know what it means to move with “grace”.  Most importantly, I have learned to treat people with grace.  I’ve learned to pick my critique very carefully, people don’t like to hear what20they did wrong, and I like that about myself.  My balance has improved, it is a constant struggle, and I will work at it.  As I struggle to find balance in dance, my struggle to find balance in life diminishes, I will work at it.  I am learning to work as a team, with my partner.  They say it takes two to Tango, it takes two to Waltz as well.  In fact, it takes two to do a great many things in life.  It’s nice to have company.

I introduced myself to someone new in dance class; we ended up having the same interest in books, we bonded.  Who would have thought such an abstract subject could bring two people closer.  Conversation this easy has never happened to me before.  I guess I just need a way to break the ice.  If I could dance with a stranger, talking to a stranger is easy. 

I danced every dance at the last social.  I didn’t even care if others were watching, if only they could see me in dance class.  It was the most exhilarating experience I have had in some time, the sore muscles will go away with time, but my memory of that night will not soon be forgotten.

Everyone in class thought I looked funny when I did the step where I move backwards.  Something about that just made my day.  I’m really starting to “feel” the floor under my feet, I’m finding it easier to keep control of my balance, body and mind.  Someone complemented me on my posture today. I just smiled, if only they saw me in dance class.

The more I learn about dance, the more I find that I will never know it all.  I don’t want to know it “all” anymore.  And even if I did know everything, I would still come to class.  It’s the process that brings me so much joy.  I’m thankful every dance where I change the mood of my partner after I dance with them, the smile that I helped to create makes my bad day brighten a bit.  I’m inspired when I see my friend that was so shy at the start of the year welcoming others, just as I did them.  I don’t look at the patterns in the manual anymore.  I don’t even think of dance as just patterns, I think of it as many things.  I think of it as feelings in my body, I think of it as bonding with another (much like stopping to talk with a stranger on the street.)  I don’t see dance class as a goal to be won anymore.  I see it as a journey to be enjoyed.

I will enjoy the ride.


 

I Am Wrong

I have been hearing a lot of students use the word “wrong” lately after they learn something new.  As in, “I think I am doing it wrong”, or “I have been doing it wrong all this time?”  or “I will never get it right!”  I would like to challenge this thinking of dance as being right and wrong.  In many respects dance is an art to be changed and created by the dancer and observed and judged by the observer.  In this way, “right” and “wrong” do not exist, only beautiful and ugly.  To that, I say “to each their own”.  However, some aspects of dance must be structured in a way that they can be passed from one to another and maintain what the original creator of that dance had in mind.  And there we have, dance studios, the best of these being Social Graces in Berryville, VA.  As a student, when you learn something new, you will not learn all aspects at the same time.  Even if you could, you would not have the ability to control very movement in your body and how it relates to another.  Instead, you learn in layers and we teach in layers.  First layer this, and second layer that, the second layer does not negate the first, it only enhances it.  Even an artist makes their master piece one brush stroke at a time.  After some time and effort the image becomes clearer and after much time and effort the image becomes breathtaking.  Unfortunately, the observer will only see the finished painting or work in progress and not the many layers that went into it.  Only the artist knows what went into it, the observer can only complement or critique the work.  As your abilities develop, crude ways of relating to the dance will be replaced by more specific and sometimes different ways, you too will become more and more breathtaking.  But could you have achieved the latter if not completing the former.  In short, give yourself the leeway to learn what’s first and understanding that when you evolve into something more, your prior self was not “wrong”, just developing.  Be not right or wrong, just strive to find the beauty in movement and forever layer your understanding and skill so your finish product look ever more inspiring.