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February 16, 2005

happiness that can not be deflated
	happiness that can not be improved
the happiness floats, unwaning, above the discordant seas
	a steady star amidst the dusky night

Dancing. Oh, hail, most glorious of activities. There's quite possibly nothing better than when you're in the midst of friends, music's pounding through your veins, and, more than merely moving your limbs in sync to the sound, the music having entered your ears commands your limbs to move. In addition to music, sugar and caffeine seem to play large parts in this process – prior to such being ingested, my movements tend to be much more reserved, generally restricting themselves to my arms. The only other person I've seen describe dancing in this way – that is, as simply moving to the music – is one Eddy.

I got into dancing this summer at CTY when, after skipping the first dance in favor of Risk, I hoped into the second with a group of friends. By the end of the night, thanks to the great dancing of Nijimaru, a hallmate, I was hooked. The next dance I miss will be the one which takes place the day after my funeral. The dances at Franklin and Marshall (where the camp was held) were quite nifty; conducted outdoors, there was always plenty of air, and, with a quick twirl into a nearby dorm, you could easily obtain water. It was pretty easy to keep dancing pretty much continuously, resting mostly in between songs. And the music played was quite the delight – I think noting that homestarrunner was played should make that clear enough.

At our school, however, we only have around 3 dances per year. As you might imagine, this isn't very conductive to either dancing practice or enjoyment. In addition, they are typically held inside a stuffy gym, and sometimes the serving of water is neglected, which can make dancing quite difficult. Regardless, I've quite enjoyed the dances we've had here, having made copious use of the ice which is typically available. Dancing for 4 hours on end, even if a lack of air keeps nirvana at bay, is exceedingly enjoyable. I'll skirt the topic of the musical choice of the DJs and/or the organizers, except to say that I don't think I've heard a single song I own – or, for that matter, that my parents own – played at a school dance. I don't mind bad music at dances too much though – with enough sugar, I'll dance to anything.

In addition, where I live the only dance classes which are available are those of ballet – which, I believe, is a choreographed style of dance, while I'm interesting in more creative ones. No ballroom (or, for that matter, breakdancing) classes for me. The quantity of people who really dance here seems to be quite small as well; most either stay far away from the floor or don't fully get into it, merely moving repetitively, although at least these people try.

As it's been 3 or so months since the last dance (woe is me!), this account unfortunately isn't as detailed as it could be, so I'll probably revisit the topic afore too long. But, despite living in a dancing wasteland, this activity constantly floats to the top of my list of hobbies, not to mention to the top of my mind itself, and I await with baited breath the next dance I'll be able to participate in.

On a slightly different note, I was looking tonight for a symbol to represent dancing. There doesn't seem to be a very obvious one, so I've been looking for gods of dance. The two main ones I found were Shiva and Terpsichore. Terpsichore is more of an actual goddess of dance, and is also a part of Greek mythology, so she appeals to me more. Unfortunately, the only symbol she yields is that of the Lyre, which isn't too bad, but is a bit difficult to integrate into a crest. We're doing clay tiles in art and I decided to make mine into a display of my crest – I have a rather nifty design incorporating a pumpkin (happiness), a knitting needle (creativity), a sword (justice), and a closet (me), and also wanted to depict dancing in it, perhaps representing selfexpression.

Dance on; who cares if you look silly, what matters is that you're expressing and enjoying yourself. If nothing else, I guarantee you you'll earn my undying admiration. And don't say you don't know how. Just start moving any old limb to the music, and the rest will follow in time.

Posted by Trevor Savage at February 16, 2005 9:54 PM

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Posted by: greta at February 19, 2005 10:32 AM

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