DANCER'S HIGH

Now as I sit here typing this with my right foot in a cast and throbbing in pain (thank you modern science for codeine) I am immensely grateful to the gods of dance that they let me have 2 of these this week before I had to stop for a month. One Tuesday and one Wednesday. The one Wednesday especially will be one I relive on my death bed I bet. Both were in practice sessions after lessons at separate classes. My wife and I hadn't taken the classes because we knew I would not be able to finish them due to the cast, but we'd gone to the after class sessions just to be with our people and enjoy ourselves before the forced hiatus. I am of course referring to the perfect dance. The dance that transports you a higher plane of existence.  I don't expect every one to understand this, but my friends who dance will. Hopefully it will inspire some of my non dancing friends to start.

The perfect dance doesn't happen very often, but occasionally everything works just right and you get that perfect moment in dance. It's you, your partner, and the music all becoming one entity that exists in a place not of this world.

I had never understood the concept of a runner's high until the first time this happened to me. It was 20 years ago, and up until then my learning to dance was primarily a way to meet women. One in which I'd had limited success I might add, but I'd stuck with it since I've never been very good at quitting. I can't tell you her name, but she was my instructor's professional partner, we were dancing two step in a now long gone night club in North Austin. From that moment I realized that I could no longer exist without dance.

It was years before I had that experience again, and even now when my health lets me dance regularly it's only an occasional thing, but I still hope for it every time I walk on the floor. I wish I had the words to describe it fully, but I don't. I once heard that every dance was a short relationship, and that's true, but when the perfect dance comes along it's even more intimate. It's as if your souls touch and intertwine with the music and if you could you would exist there forever.

And, it doesn't matter what type of dance. It can be country, ballroom, or as in the case this week my favorite West Coast Swing. So, if you haven't been dancing for a while, or if you've never been, go! It's the only way to fly.

PS – it's times like this that I wish I had more literary talent to describe the feeling so if you don't fully get it don't blame the dance blame the dancer :)