Dance it out!

By the time I was 8 years old, I had choreographed my own dance routines, which would be performed regularly in the living room of my parents' ranch style home in the suburbs of Sacramento. My interest in dance started as a way to show off: to put on frilly outfits and to imagine what it would be like to be extraordinary.

I also grew up in a household that loved to dance. I have memories of my parents dancing around the dining room table to the music of Tony Bennet. When you'd see them dance together it suddenly became so aparent why they were together. They knew how to be silly, sexy and smooth all at the same time.

Although I outgrew my "look at me" dancing phase, I still do love to dance. The ability to move spontaneously in a moment of inspiration tends to pull me out of myself. It is my self-prescribed antidote for dullness, depression, and that "ugh" mood that makes me feel heavy and unmotivated.

Dance as an art, meaning it has technique and theory, is not my subject of this thought. I like to think about dance as the small portion of my day that happens organically, just like hunger before a meal. I crave to move and I do so. God forbid anyone see me dancing in my undies while scrambling eggs in the mornings. Well, other than my toddler who has grown accustomed to my "just because I feel like it" habits.

I am curious though about all the different notions surrounding dance: dance therapy, cultural dance, seductive dance, dance of love, spiritual dance, baby dance etc. Dance, since the beginning of time, has been a bridge of refuge from oppression, it has been the first step in romantic courtships, it has led many couples from the dance floor to the bedroom, and most recently, I have noted that dance has the ability to sooth a crying baby. Turn on the reggae, pick up that chubby cheeked waller and let him know that there is more to life than crying. When my son is upset, I never let him cry it out alone. I scoop up my love bundle and we dance it out together.

Ah, dancing, yes, perhaps one day this could be the solution to war. Just dance it out!