Learning to dance

"Dancing is just conversation between two people. Let's talk." (from the movie "Hope Floats".)

Because of an upcoming wedding, my wife and I signed up for ballroom dancing classes. In the room were a wide mixture of ages and body shapes. But we were all there for the same thing; to learn how to dance.

Alan Watts, a philosopher talked about how the goal of life is to find pleasure in the journey. He used dance as a metaphor to talk about the goals in life to be movement, not destination. He stated that if the goal of dance were to finalize it, then everyone would be racing to be the first one to complete it. Music, and partners would be irrelevant. But that is not the goal of a dance.

Dance is learning to integrate form and rhythm and combining those with another person. The goal is complementary movement and the physical pleasure of being close to another person in that movement. It is learning to move with poise and grace with another person. That is what is fulfilling.

So here we are, all in a warm room that is getting warmer with all the bodies in it, learning to move together. Some are doing it better than others, but all are moving. And the more you stop thinking about it and let your partner’s presence and the music take you away, the more life seems to make sense.