Great dancer are performers. This is an ugly truth. I wish it were not so. Dancing is a performance art. This is what I
observed this year at the Michigan Dance Challenge. But I learned much more than this. Great dancers are people. Great dancers are people that love to dance. The dance come first. The performance is a necessary by-product of
something much greater… much more soulful.
One couple really captured my attention. Oh, there were others… many others… that were
great dancers. There were couples that
were entertaining. There were many
couples worthy of sharing the dance floor with other equally matched
dancers. Others were inspiring in a
dancual sort of way. One couple brought
pure elegance to the dance floor. I know
of no other way to describe it. Another
couple brought beauty. I mean this is
the most sincere way. Some of the
ladies’ gowns were simply gorgeous. There
were lots of beautiful people, but one couple stood out to me as embodying the beauty
of the dance.
There was one couple that again and again, all night long
captured me. Their smiles, their
clothing… Their posture. Their
lines. Perfect. But there was something more. They were “The Dance”. Simply… beautiful. Their dancing captured me. I will never accept the notion that what I
watched was contrived or scripted.
No. What I saw was pure… the
smiles… the dancing… what I witnessed could never be choreographed. What I saw was the soul of Ballroom Dancing.
Make no mistake. I am
under the spell of no illusion. I
recognize the hours… hundreds… even years of sacrificial days and nights spent
in a dance studio in some non-descript neighborhood in some city… somewhere
where those passing by would have no clue what was happening so close by…
oblivious to the heart and soul of dancing that was happening in that studio
that they didn’t even know existed. I
don’t want to even think about the dollars that it cost to bring a person to
this moment of the dance. But I know
that Thursday night I was near such people.
I was near the soul not of performance, but of the dance.
One couple, dance after dance, opened their heart… and I
could see the heart of the dance. It
would anger me if they would ever say to me, “We fooled you. It was nothing but scripted
choreography.” Better said, it would
break my heart. I would have to ask,
“Why would you pretend? Do you not
understand the power of what you are doing?”
I want to believe that there are some dancers that really comprehend the
value… the value of the gift of dance which we have been given. I want to believe that Thursday night I
watched someone who understood this truth.
Thank you dancers; all of you. What a wonderful evening you gave my wife and
me. And to that one couple… you have
inspired me. Thank you.
