Dance Baby Dance
I was born with uncoordinated stamped on my butt. I couldn't jump rope until I was in sixth grade. Whenever we had relays of any kind, I would brace myself for the inevitable sighs when I was placed on a team. Volleyball made me sick to my stomach. My prayer was "please go over the net, please." Ms. Compton, the caustic gym teacher, would keep asking my brother to practice with me. Jumping jacks still sort of elude me. This all combined to give me a distrust of my body. I loathed relay games or anything involving a ball. Yet, I had this dream of being a ballet dancer. I would turn on music, close my eyes and dance to my own imagination. With my eyes closed, I could be as graceful as I hoped.
Although music is consider a universal medium, dance seems to be the real communicator. Clearly it uses music to guide the experience. As I watched my daughter's ballet recital. I was awed by the beauty of this powerful art form. Music is generally experienced by each individual listener. When one observes dancing, this lyrical movement creates a story from the music and transforms it within each dancer's body. We, as an audience, can connect what we feel/hear inside to a powerful manifestation of leaps, jumps, spins and grace. When the dancer fluidly leapt across the stage, I felt like shouting "That is what I'm feeling right now!" What a gift a dancer possesses to unite an audience with their performance. It still makes me want to close my eyes and dance. And yes, I still have to close my eyes to feel graceful. (Don't ask me about my adult clogging class.)
Although music is consider a universal medium, dance seems to be the real communicator. Clearly it uses music to guide the experience. As I watched my daughter's ballet recital. I was awed by the beauty of this powerful art form. Music is generally experienced by each individual listener. When one observes dancing, this lyrical movement creates a story from the music and transforms it within each dancer's body. We, as an audience, can connect what we feel/hear inside to a powerful manifestation of leaps, jumps, spins and grace. When the dancer fluidly leapt across the stage, I felt like shouting "That is what I'm feeling right now!" What a gift a dancer possesses to unite an audience with their performance. It still makes me want to close my eyes and dance. And yes, I still have to close my eyes to feel graceful. (Don't ask me about my adult clogging class.)
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