Movement. Dance is much more than high art, folklore or consumer pop! Dancing is also about joy. It is joyful. It is about having a good time. Dance nourishes the soul. Dance is celebration!
When I always growing up I always loved to dance. My mother is from the state of Bahia, in the Northeast of Brazil. In Bahia the Africa influence is very prominent. It is also a very artistic area. Music and dance is simply everywhere in Bahia. When I was very young I lived there.
When I moved to Goias, a beautiful country area of Brazil, I would return almost every year to visit relatives in Bahia, since my mom's sister and many of her aunts and uncles still live there. Sometimes I would return with my parents sometimes, my favorite times, I would go back with my grandmother. I still have those early memories of seeing people dancing in the streets at "carnaval" time. I remember the celebratory feeling in the air. Everybody moving together. Yes, everyone smiling!
When I as very young I took ballet classes. As a teenager, I began taking dance classes again. I took modern, contemporary and popular and traditional dances of Brazil. And when I went to college to study journalism at 17, dance classes helped me cope with the pressures of the long hours sitting in my desk doing mental work and researching papers. I remember many of my colleges leading a sedentary life totally disconnected of their bodies. They seemed trapped in their head. It was the first time that I made the link between mind and body, intent and action.
Since I was involved in theater and dance, I started to see the connection between thought and action. It is no surprise for me that physical exercise has been proved to be a natural medicine to help or cure depression. Most of us know that physical exercise alleviates stress. But why? In my opinion inertia blocks the flow of spontaneity it make us stiff both physically and emotionally.
All that I am talking here, of course, is from a very personal experience. A life dancing has given me more that career but a path of leaning, integrating and healing. The Reader's Digest dictionary describes dance as: 1-to move the body and feet rhythmically, especially to music. So dance is rhythm! And we all are born with it. We just have to open ourselves up to it. All it takes is practice and patience. In my observation people that looks as having more rhythm was encouraged as a child to move and express themselves rhythmically. Yes, like everything else in life, rhythm has to be cultivated!
So, what happens when one cultivates rhythm? I had dance students tell me that when they regained their own rhythm it gave them the freedom to listen to their own spirit. Almost like opening a magic door. They could express themselves in a way that they cannot truly be expressed through words.
I have been dancing all my life. I have seen not just bodies transformed by the power of movement, since a lot of people start dancing to be in shape, but I have seen minds. When the mind is transformed then the life is transformed. Movement challenges you. When you move, there are obstacles of stiffness and coordination. Movement is an education. It pushers the body and mind toward greatness. As the great dancer Pearl Primus wrote: "Dance is strong magic. The dance is spirit. It turns the body to liquid steel. It makes it vibrate like a guitar. The body can fly without wings. It can sing without a voice. The dance is life!"
I believe everyone can and should dance. Dance for the joy of it as a child does and you will be rewarded with a lifelong gift of health and joy!
© 2007. No portion of this article may be reproduced without permission of the author!
Vanessa's photo above is by photographer Cil de Kolda
