365 Days, Day 268

When you dance, you can enjoy the luxury of being you (Paulo Coelho)

Dancing opens the way to the inner self

And paves the way for the outer joy

(Darina Stoyanova)

It's the heart afraid of dying, that never learns to dance;

It's the dream afraid of waking, that never takes the chance;

It's the one who won't be taken, who cannot seem to give;

And the soul afraid of dying, that never learns to live

(Bette Midler)

I have been reading about a dancer who uses her body to communicate – as her canvas to express her creativity, emotions, secrets. I am intrigued.

There are so many forms of dance, from the movement of trees or animals in Nature, to the packet being blown in the wind, to people moving to their inner or outer rhythm.

I adore dancing programmes but don’t seem to sit still long enough o watch them these days. My favourite is So You Think You Can Dance but it has nit been showing here in the UK so I think I have missed out. Last week Ariél called me to watch Got to Dance. I was in awe of the creativity and brilliance of a male duo Chris and Wes – they managed to infuse their personalities and humour and technical brilliance into their choreography. They got a standing ovation for their final performance; I heard on the news today that they won the competition. Another brilliant dancing troupe is Diversity. I can’t explain how amazing they – you have to see their dances to understand.

I want to dance!

(Except my knee is a bit dodgy right now…)

365 Days, Day 51

If you are going to walk on thin ice, you might as well dance (Unknown)

Dance is the landscape of a man's soul (Unknown)

Dance is the hidden language of the soul of the body. (Martha Graham)

The dancer's body is simply the luminous manifestation of the soul. (Isadora Duncan)

I was a ‘dancing mum’ for quite few years: Ariél started ballet when she was almost four. Twice a year there exams and once a year there was festival. being a dancing mum means lurking about the dancing studio while your daughter is at her lesson, chatting to other dancing mums: this is where I met up with Michaela’s mum, Brenda (whose husband was shot outside their home), Storm’s mum (who had an affair with her personal trainer and fell pregnant), Lisa’s mum (Pauliane whose older daughter, Sam was in my English class and one of favourite students) and loads of others. Exam and festival time meant: la Pebras to gel the hair back so it was like plastic), loads of clips, sewing ribbons on ballet shoes, choosing costumes, listening to music (if your daughter did well enough in exams to warrant a solo) for your daughter’s dance, hours of extra rehearsals, practising at home (and being the perfectionist I am polishing the dance with your daughter.

I always wanted to do dancing. I went to modern dance class in Matric, given by a petite teacher who had been a dancer at Sun City and was having a relationship with a married pilot. She always told us girls that we were too big to be dancers. My knees started giving me problems.

I did Spanish dancing lessons with Ariél’s ballet teacher, Leigh. I did two exams. But I was so nervous that my castanets clattered from my shaking hands.

I tried 5 Rhythms Dance in East Grinstead. Most exhilarating. But it is quite a journey to get there.

Sometimes I turn my music up loud and JUST DANCE.

I feel alive when I dance> it releases my soul.