dance #191, unleashing exuberance

Monday June 29, 2009

Unleashing exuberance

“I believe that we start off being really shy and now we’re into a dance where we’re required to bring our arms up above our waists.  It seems awkward at first; it seems showy and awkward.  For a shy person, that is difficult.  But after awhile you forget about it, because it is all part of the art form of dancing.” (Excerpt from a male informant quoted in one of the chapters of Karen Angus’s Masters thesis, an ethnographic study of students and competitors training in ballroom dancing)

10:50 p.m. A five minute dance in the study. Bringing my arms up above my waist to do a dance for all those too shy to try. Moving with my arms above my head unleashes an amazing energy, a rush. Exuberance unleashed. Today I’ve been thinking with Karen and Debra through all the ways our bodies’ movements get disciplined, constrained, or truncated. Who knew how libratory it could be to raise your arms up above your head and just dance? Maybe this is a good cure for shyness. Try it now!

Alice was here by my side earlier. It rained and rained today, with some intermittent calm. Deep grey skies. A yellow spider cast a large, intricate web out in front of my house earlier this afternoon in the pause between showers.

~ by nmyers on June 29, 2009.