Words That Yearn to Dance

by Kevin Carrel Footer
29 November 2015

As this tour comes to an end – today we stow the van till our return in August – my thoughts turn increasingly to dance. The other night as I coiled the cables after our very last show with couples moving on the dance floor below me, I watched their faces and knew their ecstasy, their doubts, their quest. A song came on that moved me and I couldn’t hold back any more; I let the cable in my hands fall, grabbed the nearest free partner and danced that one song. Not a tanda, just a single song, but it filled me with that peace and sacred energy I crave.

I will go back to Buenos Aires shortly and I will dance and dance. And write. Those are my two anchors. After months of constant moving from place to place, I want to stand still, to move slowly in place and to contemplate this time I have lived. Tango in the milongas, tango in the streets during carnival, Contact Improv in the grass of Parque Centenario and in Casa Azul in San Telmo. Long morning sessions sipping yerba mate and writing words that flow from me like a dance.

I cannot separate dancing from writing. I need the movement to free the stymied words. Dancing dislodges them and when they are free, so am I.

I want to explore this connection more deeply with others who are searching for this same release. I hope to gather a band of like-minded people in Buenos Aires to help each other free the words through dance. It is what we need.