I was asked to share a video of a dance that I recently learned. Before I do so, I would like to add a few thoughts about my experience with modern dance.
- There is no substitute for dance. When we moved to our current house and I was looking for fitness classes at a gym to replace dance classes in a studio, we found that there is no such thing. The simultaneous mental and physical challenge just doesn’t exist in a fitness class.
- I love partnerwork — giving and taking weight, assisting and being assisted
- I love levels — high levels: leaping, jumping, hopping, and low levels: floorwork, as in sliding, all kinds of rolling, falling
- I love the challenge, but I probably sound like I’m complaining about it — Probably because non-dancers can’t relate in sympathetic fashion.
- There is nothing like performing to live music. I was blessed to dance at Westminster Church a couple years in a row back in the early 2000’s. Love love loved being able to dance to live music (vocal and instrumental).
- This most recent dance is unlike most dances I’ve done. Very little locomotion, no technical turns, no extreme level or dynamic energy changes, but the upper/lower body coordination and memory work — whew! The audience can’t tell how difficult it is, but oh. my. gosh. It’s exercise for the brain — nonstop, two minutes of movement and direction changes.
So here you go, Masha.