Dance, then, wherever you may be

``We should consider every day lost on which we have not danced at least once.''
-- Friedrich Nietzsche

It's a little surprising, considering just how much of a passion I have for it, that I haven't yet posted anything about dancing. Ballroom dancing, that is (which also includes the Latin and Swing dances), in which I began taking lessons just under ten years ago, in my second semester here at university in the US. Lord knows I have plenty to talk about on the subject, as many/most of my friends and relatives can attest to --- dancing truly is one of my greatest joys in life, and this is as good a place as any other to give a shout-out to the people who made that possible for me: Navid Ghanadan, who introduced me to it, inviting me to a dance on campus, organized by the UMCP ballroom club, and at which I stood pressed up against a wall for two hours, not knowing how to do a single one of the various dances that were played that night, but resolving to learn them as soon as I could. Karen Trimble, the best dance instructor I have come across in ten years of dancing --- indeed, one of the best teachers I have ever had in any subject --- and whose lessons I have returned to every semester since the Spring of 1998. And Minyoung Kim, my first dance partner and very close friend, who gave me the opportunity to practice regularly, helped me improve my technique, got me to actually come out dancing socially on a regular basis, and showed me the way to truly begin to enjoy dancing.

But the idea for this particular post came from a recent realization of just why it was that I was interested in ballroom dancing in the first place. People have often asked me which my favourite dance is, and I've always replied that I didn't have a favourite dance; if I liked the music, then I would enjoy whichever dance was appropriate for that music. And I truly did feel that way --- I had no preference for a waltz over a chacha, or a samba over a foxtrot, or a swing over a rumba. It depended on the song/music, and it depended on my mood. I've had many foxtrot-y days, and just as many chacha days. One of my friends, also from India, and also one of Karen's students, and coincidentally, also one of my fellow grad students in my department, became interested in ballroom dancing thanks to having been impressioned by the Fred Astaire / Ginger Rogers movies. His favourite dance is the foxtrot, not surprisingly. But I had no such affiliation. My only pre-ballroom desire to learn to dance that I could remember derived from going to parties in Bombay and watching enviously from the sidelines as the rest of my friends jived the night away. (The stand-in-one-spot-and-shake-while-moving-your-arms-randomly style held no appeal for me then, and still doesn't. Overwhelming boredom usually sets in at about the 45-second mark, even if the music is something I really like. I can groove away to a rhythm while doing something else, no problem, but I can't do nothing but groove. I need *movement*, and *variety*!) But though I definitely enjoy the swing/jive now, I've never gotten a sense of it being The Dance for me.

Then, earlier this year, I happened to be watching the final rounds of the professional/championship level at the Ohio Star Ballroom competition (held in November of the previous year), telecast by PBS as the "America's Ballroom Challenge" television mini-series, and one of the couples who took my breath away were Ben Ermis and Shalene Archer-Ermis, who, for their show dance,danced the loveliest, most gentle, and most graceful Viennese Waltz I had ever seen. As one of the commentators put it: "This is how we all dance with our partner in our dreams!" (They eventually came first in the American Smooth division of the championship.) I didn't think much more of it back then because many of the other couples in that competition took my breath away as well. (For example, see here for the tango that Tomasz Mielnicki and J. T. Damalas did for their show dance, set to Roisin Murphy's "Ramalama (Bang Bang)", and here for Mazen Hamza and Irina Sarukhanyan's martial-arts-inspired tango show dance.) Recently, though, in hunting for the music to which they had choreographed their dance ("You and me", by Lifehouse), I came across a recording of their performance on YouTube (which I've linked to above). And, in watching that clip --- and another one of David and Valentina Weise, also dancing a Viennese Waltz, this one set to Kelly Clarkson's "Breakaway" --- over and over again, it suddenly hit me that *this* was My Dance! This, the Viennese Waltz, was the dance that fired up the strongest passions in me, even if it was one of those at which I am least technically proficient. It's the one that, no matter what my current mood is, most easily shuts out the world around me and carries me off into a different one, where there's nothing but me, my partner (imaginary, if need be), and the dance --- although (depending on the music) the foxtrot and west coast swing are quite close behind. (And the rest of the peloton follows quite closely, too --- it's a not a clear-cut competition at all! ;) )

And then, serving as further confirmation, I remembered that, in all those ten years of lessons, Karen's infrequent announcements that the lesson for the day would be the Viennese Waltz were the ones that I met with the most unbridled joy. I never could get enough of this particular dance, and on the one occasion (besides preparing for the DCDI competition in 2004) that I took a private lesson with Karen, it was the VW in which I chose to get the extra instruction.

I don't know why I have this connection to this particular dance. It was probably something that I saw when I was very very young, and which left a mark on my sub-concious. A Disney movie, maybe? Who knows. Maybe someday I'll find out. Maybe someday I'll even find out that it's not the Viennese Waltz but some other dance that's actually my favourite. But for now, this is my answer. :)

Dance, then, wherever you may be
For I am the lord of the dance, said He,
And I'll lead you all wherever you may be
And I'll lead you all in the dance, said He.

(Chorus of the hymn "Lord of the Dance", created by Sidney Carter with the melody from the Shaker song "Simple Gifts", which was also the inpiration for the "Variations on a Shaker Melody" section of Aaron Copland's "Appalachian Spring".)