Would you like to dance?

“You are happy now… The happiness is flowing out of you…. It happened during our dancing.”

He was right. I felt it. The dancing was taking me to different levels. I was floating; the endorphins were lifting me up into a state of bliss. I was riding an imaginary wind. I joined my make-believe birds, spread my fantasy wings and glided into the air of the night. The eagle in me soared, scanned the dance floor as if from above… I turned my head, swooped down for a magical moment, transformed into a flamingo, touched the floor and glided on.

I need it so, the dancing! I need it often. Without dancing my life is incomplete. Dancing lifts me into another world, one where I connect at a different level with others. Those around me, close to me, but also beyond. Sometimes, I wonder just how far beyond, as through my dancing, I feel a connection with those not with me in the here and now, but who are in different worlds.

I can dance anywhere: at home, outdoors, at work parties, at dancing venues. The right kind of music can get me going, at times to the dismay of my children! I remember being in New York with them a couple of years ago, listening to and watching a jazz band in The Village… I felt myself start to move. My daughter, who knew what was coming, turned to me with a quite explicit ‘no mum, don’t even think about it’ as she moved away from me. (Not sure she would still do this today.)

I find myself dancing to all kinds of music, though needless to say some rhythms take me higher than others. Through the music and the dancing I relive different moments from my past and present. One moment I am at high school, dancing with adolescent boys, next I am at a Uni party having the time of my life. I can be in far away places with those that matter to me and then I am back again, spinning in the now.

I love to spin, but after a few turns I get dizzy. I wish I could dance like the ‘whirling dervishes’ and perform the form of physical active meditation that the Sufis (the Sufi dervishes of the Mevlevi order) perform as a worship ceremony, aiming to reach the source of all perfection. They are totally mesmerising. I watched them twice in Istanbul, and hope to watch them once in Konya.

I was intrigued to find this definition of dancing on Wikipedia: Dance is a type of art that generally involves movement of the body, often rhythmic and to music. It is performed in many cultures as a form of emotional expression, social interaction or exercise, in a spiritual or performance setting, and is sometimes used to express ideas or tell a story. Dance may also be regarded as a form of nonverbal communications between humans or other animals, as in bee dances and behaviour patterns such as mating dances.

As anyone who knows me will attest, I love stories and storytelling. So I guess in my desire to dance, I tell my stories. And through dancing with others, our stories connect and we create new realities, new meaning and new reason for being. Come, dance with me….