Over the years, I’ve danced in ballet shoes, pointe shoes, jazz shoes, dance sneakers, and today, I purchased my very first…
…Capezio foot undeez! (aka “dance paws”) I didn’t even know they existed.
They’re for the contemporary dance classes (for the uninitiated and curious, there’s google) I’ve just started taking. It’s been quite a while since I attended a “proper” dance class, which is far-removed from the group exercise dance classes that I attend in the gym on a daily basis. In a proper class, we dance like dance is a serious matter, that is, with attention to technique, and with feeling - not the “give-na-give-hala-sige-sige-ang-galing-galing-ko-talaga!” feeling - but rather, the person-specific emotions evoked by the choreography and the music. I’m sure the instructor and my classmates find it outre’ whenever I ask “Anong story nito?” in reference to the choreography, but it would inspire the interpretation (kinareer talaga!). One of my classmates jokingly suggested her own storyline in today’s class, narrating while running through the steps: “Ay!…Naputol ang puno!...But…why...Oh...why?”
Dancing is my art of choice, it nourishes my soul in ways that nothing else I do can. When I dance, my heart soars. I started dancing as a child, and from the get-go, it was love. It still is.
My daughter, who is twelve, has been taking ballet lessons since she was three. I am always warmed by the thought that I have bequeathed my love of dance to her, and that she herself fathoms and revels in its boundless joys. I see it in her face, and in the way she smiles, whenever she performs.
I have asked her to join me in one of my contemporary dance classes – just for her to experience another dance genre’. It will be pure bliss taking a class and dancing together for the first time.
Nadine, double pirouette tayo, it won't be starting from fifth position, promise.
Dance, truly, is 
.
