Dance Is the Only Art That Is Made Using Nothing but Ourselves P

THE REASONS WHY We DANCE

As a choreographer and author (though I confess I am far more comfy to claim the former than the latter), I get asked to share my opinion about a myriad of dance related topics from the practical:
"How can dance assist y'all go in shape?"
"What is the best way to practice my footwork?"
"What are the three well-nigh important partnering techniques I should learn?"

To the existential:
"Is my dancing a projection of my self-image?"
"How can dancing amend relationships?"
"Tin dancing help you lot overcome fear?"

All good questions with good answers to be certain, only today I want to answer, or at to the lowest degree try to reply, the question I become asked most oft. The question I think matters near…

"WHY Practice PEOPLE DANCE?"

That's it. Simply, why? What is it about moving our bodies to a song we beloved that is so joyfully Pavlovian? Why do we spotter videos, obsess over our reflection in the kitchen window, and aye, have lessons to perfect something that could easily be labeled as footling? Why do we put ourselves through the concrete fatigue and the occasional social awkwardness merely to phone call ourselves dancers? Why do we dear it so?

There are the obvious answers. Nosotros dance for concrete fitness. We dance for mental clarity. We dance for emotional stability, and other such pluses.

Nonetheless, all these benefits could be attained by others means, though I confess I accept even so to discover a better alternative than a keen cha cha to lift both one'due south heart-rate and spirits. Nevertheless, we do not demand to dance to acquire a sound mind and trunk. And then, there must be more reasons why nosotros practice and so. At that place must be something glorious nearly dancing that is more just intangible; information technology must be almost imperceptible. We cannot seem to explain it, notwithstanding we all know information technology and then well that we do non hesitate to tap our anxiety to a Gershwin tune or pulse with the percussion of a samba rhythm. And so why do nosotros trip the light fantastic?

Perhaps dance is the manner nosotros express ourselves when words are insufficient. The joy nosotros experience over new found dearest, the determination we accept in the face of keen sorrow or adversity, the passionate fire of our youth and the peacefulness of our softer and more graceful years – maybe they are never expressed more than fully than through a waltz, or a tango, or a jive. We all want to be understood, and if nosotros could truly speak the words that describe our feelings, how deep and powerful they would surely be. But alas, those words never seem to come to us just correct.

MAYBE DANCE IS SIMPLY A TRANSLATOR FOR THE Homo HEART.

Perhaps dance is the medium through which nosotros bear witness the earth who we truly are and who we can be. All of united states of america, if we are honest, believe deep down that we are not ordinary. We know ourselves to be wonderfully unique, with many layers of personality and talent woven in such a fashion that no i on world could possibly take our aforementioned make-upwardly. We know it. We just do not ever know how to prove it.

Maybe DANCE GIVES US THE OPPORTUNITY.

And maybe dance is how we cull to call back, how we hold on to the past. It is how nosotros relive the fun-filled days of our youth or the time nosotros looked in their eyes and knew they were the 1. Information technology is our tribute to the heroes of yesterday who jitterbugged like carefree boys and girls, when tomorrow they would march as men and women to defend freedom's cause. Information technology is the chance to be a princess over again, waiting for an out-stretched hand and the phone call to a romance that is svelte, true, and non as forgotten as the cynics say.  When we dance, we can remember them all a footling amend, feel the butterflies once more, and if but for a moment, return to the purest function of our lives when time was of no matter…for we were dancing.

Why do we trip the light fantastic toe? Every answer will be unlike, and that is as it should be. Perhaps the better question is, "Why would we not?"

David Thomas Moore is the Artistic Director and Resident Choreographer for Dance With Me U.s.. He is the also co-writer/choreographer for the stage show,Sway: A Dance Trilogy.

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The best part is… literally anyone tin practise information technology. With the right teachers, it's fun and like shooting fish in a barrel to do. Literally the hardest part is taking that first step… to option up the phone, to schedule a lesson, to walk inside a dance studio. Once yous take those start steps, the steps on the ballroom are every bit easy as a breath of fresh air.

TELL US IN THE COMMENTS WHY You DANCE!

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