I get happy when I dance. It is that simple. Dancing unleashes a fecund happy elixir that just spreads through me, knocking down obstacles, overcoming barriers that would dare to hold it back.
I take a tentative step, extend my foot, start playing with balance and weight on the floor and it is like a vast drug has been injected into me, flowing into the loneliest corner. So simple and so mysterious.
We are made to dance. Just look at Pharrell Williams’ 24-hour “Happy” video clip. I’m not embarrassed to admit that I’ve watched at least 18 hours of it, sitting with my Dad at the kitchen table. It’s just a beautiful thing to dance and to see people dance. A simple and mysterious pleasure.
This week I gave my first tango workshop, in a medieval Spanish town. It was a tentative step, but not one on which I can now turn my back. It was so much fun to share what I have learned these past 20 years and so inspiring to see them find that same happiness themselves.
We don’t dance enough in this life, just as we don’t play enough music together. In this specialized, inter-communicated world, it seems only the professionals have the right to dance or make music. It’s a shame because these arts – these pleasures – belong to all of us, without prejudice, to amateur and professional alike.
Let’s take them back.
—
By Kevin Carrel Footer – www.kevincarrelfooter.com
I’d love to hear your thoughts. Write me here or leave a comment below.
Want more of my writings on tango, Buenos Aires and the Creative Life?
Leave a Reply