“You dance love, and you dance joy, and you dance dreams.” - Gene Kelly
These past few weeks I’ve experienced the joy of all joys: I get to dance. That’s right, my beloved soul line dance class has started up again. I am thrilled beyond words, although, ironically, I’ll use words to describe how thrilled I am.
I love to dance. I am not a gifted dancer by any means, but I do pride myself on having the ability to move to a beat, however awkward that might look. (Let’s just hope no one was filming the last wedding dance I attended.) My husband does not enjoy dancing, and that is A-OK by me, because, frankly, I love dancing solo. And line dancing gives me the steps to do it.
Recently, I have been having flashes of memories of my mom, who passed away recently. I was smiling at the thought of the two of us attending “Jazzercise”, which was part of the aerobic dance craze a few decades ago. Like line dancing, the instructor led us in the appropriate moves, with a few aerobics jumps thrown in for the sake of our cardio health. It was joyful moving to the beat with my mom, no matter how goofy the two of us looked, and I treasure that.
Dancing takes me out of my head, and lets me know the gift of a body that can move with ease, which I hope never to take for granted. And although I am dancing “alone”, I am surrounded by a group of smiling friends who feel the same joy of dancing that I do.
Dancing is, as Mr. Kelly says, is love, joy, and dreams all rolled into one. And that is joy in the time of COVID.