Friday, November 11, 2005
the dance of life
so… last saturday night amanda, chris, and i went swing dancing for shelia’s 30th bday… and i was marveling at how the guys know how to lead and the ladies know how to follow their lead. to me, it’s amazing that two people who haven’t ever danced together before could dance in harmony together, depending on how well the guy could communicate his intentions through his actions as he led.
then again, last night, i went with jill and amanda to sevilla for salsa dance. we stopped by early for the quick lesson, and then at the end they told us to grab a partner and told the guy what to do to lead us and make us turn. then they turned on the music and set us loose. i was pleasantly surprised at how many guys were good leads there, since i consider myself a beginner, but they had me dancing at a more advanced level. it was pretty funny how every once in a while i’d flub it up totally and realize he wanted me to turn to the left and i was already headed to the right and my hands would fly out of their lead and i’d realize that i read it wrong. usually, when that happened, i’d laugh, and then ask them what it was they were trying to do. and then if they tried it again i would do the right thing… i guess i amazed some of them cuz then they told me that i learned quickly, and that i was good for a beginner. but i would have to give all the credit to them for being such a great lead, because they were able to pull me up to their level.
i made a comment before i went to sevilla’s - that when you go out there you see the old couple that are so fluid together you know they’ve been dancing together for years! i’ve always thought it’d be nice to have that kind of dance partner where you know each other so well that there would never be the misunderstandings like i had last night, but we’d be able to dance beautifully together on the floor complementing each other and moving in harmony with each other. and i guess… it made me think of that metaphor, ‘the dance of life’, and i realize that the give and take between two people is so similar to what you see out there on the dance floor. how lovely it must be to be an old married couple where you know what each other wants without having to verbalize it, but instead you’re able to move together in complete harmony because you’ve worked through all the misunderstandings when you were younger, and you’ve just gelled with the other person. but that’s something for later in life… it’d be nice, even at the stage of life i’m in right now, just to find the person who makes me dance at a better level, metaphorically speaking. just to be able to understand the pushes and pulls to move in harmony and learn what each other means by our actions…