As you would know by the previous posts, we are learning salsa, tango and some other dances thanks to our south American colleagues.
I'm really enjoying it, and re-discovering the beautiful ways that we can express our feelings through dancing, involving such a variety of intricate moves and subtle signs that partners give to each other. Attitude is a key factor; the way you act converts the music, sound in the air, into movement. The world just seems at your feet when you connect these two elements harmoniously.
Latin dances are full of emotion; salsa for instance conveys excitement and joy, playfulness and complicity, all by the combination of rhythm, body connections, turns, changing hands...
Tango not including a set rhythm is a flowing, elegant dance where balance and connection between the partners must be seamless. Pace, eye contact, connection, holding, carrying... all are governed by the music’s message; anger, joy, sadness... The man very much guides the dance, giving space to the woman when appropriate. As Ricardo (our teacher) says, ‘the woman is a beautiful painting; the man is its frame’.
Dancing connects you to people, for you don’t always dance with the same partner. As a man I wouldn’t dance with a man (some do that and it's fine), but I can still observe other couples for inspiration, and continually learning makes the experience ever-more exciting. Even if you know every possible move, you can always strive to reach perfection – as this quest can never be fulfilled you may stay on it forever, as long as you have fun!
I consider Art at large as the way of expressing and creating emotions for yourself and others – poetry, singing, painting, sculpting etc... Growing up I always enjoyed pencil drawing, it was a time when I could break away from the world and give my very best on a piece of paper, however my mother would always comment: ‘not bad’, then I’d be angry and strive to do better (I believed my drawings were in fact very nice!)
Back to dancing, there is a quote from the poet Robert Frost saying that ‘Dancing is the vertical expression of a horizontal desire’. This can be taken in different ways, to me dancing and other art forms have been developed with such effort towards perfection and so often driven by love, that they can bring relationships to an incredibly high level of value.
In other words, I guess this (very!) short reflection is about taking time to develop skills, connecting deeper and generally add value to relationships in a world where you may cross the path of hundreds of people in a day while counting smiles on the fingers of one hand. You won’t dance with everyone in the world, but if you can get more people dancing in your area, I’m sure you will count more smiles. Perhaps this can also build trust that people are not always in for quick returns and that we can wait for bigger things, being worked on, to emerge...
Bachata link here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cehkSxOLNA
sorry, "embedding disabled by request" on youtube.
Next post will be about our leadership essay! Have a good one!
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