I Was A Dancer All Along.

posted in: Art, Family 6

I’m misunderstood, you know. Really, I’m a dancer.

I never told anyone, never dared to admit it even to myself. I took dance classes at Debbie’s School of Dance as a kid, but those classes weren’t fun so I wasn’t particularly good at them. That made it seem that I was only an okay dancer, not a gifted one.

Now wait, wait: I’m no dance genius. Have you been to any city ballet company performance recently? watched a Beyonce video? Dancers are artists and they train their whole lives to be professionals. I wouldn’t insult them by saying I have some divine knowledge of their craft. But if you’re talking passion and creativity, I can say with conviction: I’m a dancin’-dancin’-dancin’-dancin’ machine that can match the best of ’em.

You know how I know? It’s because there is no other state in which I am more baseline happy than when I am dancing. Look how happy I am:

I'm the short one. The tall one is my sister Nan.
I’m the short one.

I’m dancing, as evidenced by the right foot step forward, there. My sister Nan is mugging for the camera and she’s clearly freaking adorable, but I’m actually not mugging. I’m just caught in a moment.

When I’m dancing (and I prefer good, crunchy remixes to pop music) and in the zone (which most assuredly does exist, a place between intense focus and stream-of-consciousness) I’m alive. I feel my vitality. It’s said that we don’t “have” a body, we are a body. When I’m dancing, I know this and embracing it feels as good as it felt to be with my sister back in that room on the farm in Iowa that day.

How about you? What do you love the most?

6 Responses

  1. Nita
    | Reply

    Yup…me too! I like to say that if you want to know who I am, you have to see me dance 🙂

  2. Marianne Fons
    | Reply

    See that Log Cabin on the wall above the space heater? I learned to hand quilt on that. Seriously, on one end of the quilt, the hand stitches are crooked and uneven. While it was in progress I had the good fortune to be able to watch master quilter Chris Wolf Edmonds demonstrate hand quilting. My skill rises sort of geographically across that ol’ Log Cabin. More recently, when my husband Mark and I acquired our puppy Scrabble, I decided she needed a quilt of her own, so that Log Cabin has belonged to Scrabble for about three years. She (and washing) has rather made mincemeat out of it, but that’s okay. In the intervening years, while Hannah and Mary, and their little sister Rebecca, were growing up, I made many, many more quilts. I can spare one Log Cabin for a little doggie.

    • Mary Fons
      | Reply

      Haahaahaaha! “Pointless.” That is amazing.

      So is Scrabble.

  3. Betty Elliott
    | Reply

    I love the picture! And you still look a lot like that little girl. (I always wanted to be a dancer, too.)

  4. Teresa D.
    | Reply

    what I love the most….peace in all things, myself, my friends, my family; yep thats what I love the most!

  5. Jane @ Handiworking
    | Reply

    Quiet time is what it’s all about for me. Whether I’m reading, sewing, cooking, knitting, taking a walk, holding hands with my sweetie, even dancing … it’s being in the moment, actually feeling the moment so I’ll recognize it later in my memories when I need it. Love the expression of sheer joy on your face in that photo!

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