Dancing through Life to the Fullest!

I love to dance—always have.  I loved Swing since before I conned my high school friends to dance lessons in my living room for birthday/Christmas celebrations etc.  But the first two years of my move to Houston were pretty much devoid of dancing, so when a few friends (now roommates) from church expressed some interest in Swing in the spring of this year, I was thrilled!  We started out slowly, only going once a week or so, and before we knew it, we found ourselves regularly dancing three times a week!  It’s been a wonderful blessing in many ways, especially as we’ve deepened our friendships with each other and gained new ones as well! 

Not long ago, one of these new friends began to give us ballroom lessons and I have been blown away by how much we have been learning through them.  His style of teaching is not one that is widespread, which is a shame.  It depends on knowing the way that men and women carry themselves—their center of balance, their natural posture, their energy—in order to achieve the elegant movement we associate with ballroom dance.  What is generally taught now is a series of synchronized steps that mimic the effect that a naturally-moving couple performs without much effort.  It takes years to learn, and leads to all kinds of injuries because it requires both the lead and follow to make their bodies move in ways for which they were not designed.  And the worst part is that the dancers rarely feel the exhilaration of dancing with the wind in their faces; they are too worried about the angle of their feet or ribcage. 

But this is not the way we have been learning.  At first, I was a little skeptical of this new method, because I have always been taught to have a “frame”, to learn my steps, to interpret signals, but these are all things that actually end up getting in the way of true lead-follow communication.  If the follow maintains her own frame, the lead is no longer connected to the follow.  He is connected to one part of her body.  He cannot tap into the energy and grace that is a natural part of a follow’s body because he can only feel an arm or a hand or a back.  If, however, a follow rests on the lead’s frame, in her natural, 7 year-old posture, the lead can “play” with her whole body; the follow doesn’t need to know the steps at all in fact, because the lead directs her body and her body knows how to move and balance and catch itself much better than she ever could by micro-managing it. 

As can be imagined, we’ve spent a lot of time just processing this conceptually, then trying a dance and seeing how it works practically.   It’s pretty amazing what he can lead us to do when we are focused on relaxing into our lead and just letting our bodies take care of the details of how our feet or hips or torsos actually accomplish the movement.  He’s led us in technically advanced moves that we’ve (apparently) done very well, but would have taken us five years to even attempt with the current traditional approach.  And oh my goodness is it fun!!!!

At this point, the question, “so what?” might, legitimately, be asked. J

Taking these lessons with dear friends who are believers has amplified my enjoyment by untold amounts.  Often, we have spent the whole ride home discussing what we’ve learned, but also what that knowledge teaches us about God’s character and who He created us to be.  We’ve joked about writing a book to capture all these epiphanies—our working title is Sabbath with Suneth.  Rather than attempting to explain all of them here, I will try to address them in future posts, and will instead end this one with a thought that came to me last Shabbat as I was praying and listening in the quiet of the morning.

My thoughts had wandered to Thursday evening’s ballroom class at Rice University, where we have just joined the social dance society as “community members”.   It was the first class, so there had been a basic lesson, but the majority of it was a “free dance” time.  At one point, our friend/teacher, Suneth, led me in a complicated (according to the dance world) Samba move that involved me crossing in front of him, landing in the crook of one arm, then back across to the crook of his other arm.  After doing this a few times, it turned into a fast pivot turn in closed position (my left arm on his, his right arm/hand supporting my back).  It was incredible!  All I wanted to/could think about was the sensation of flying through the air, the wind we created blowing my hair.  I was completely out of control and yet completely secure.  When we stopped spinning I wasn’t even dizzy, in fact I think I laughed and said, “do it again!”  My students would be so proud. ;)

As I was thinking about this on Saturday, a verse kept coming into my head: John 10:10, “The thief comes to kill and destroy, but I have come that they might have life and have it to the full.”  Life to the full!  Experiencing the joy and goodness and delight that God created life to be before it was corrupted by sin, by worry, by striving, by pride and posturing.  That is why Jesus came to die for us; to deal with the sin that separates us from the perfect relationship to the Father that He desires and for which we hunger and search.  He did not create us to be constantly worrying.  In fact in Matthew 6:25-34, Jesus says specifically, “do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink or what you will wear… for the pagans run after these things and your Heavenly Father knows that you need them.  But seek first the Kingdom of Righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well…” In other words, do not try to micro-manage the things that will be taken care of without your strivings.  Instead, focus on building your relationship with God, the perfect lead, who, if we listen to and trust Him, will lead us through a life of fullness and satisfaction!  Just as the best dance happens when the follow relaxes into the posture and energy with which she was created and is thus closely enough connected to her lead that her body does what he asks without her micromanaging and getting in the way, Jesus said that his food, his sustenance, was to, “do the will of the One who sent me.”  May it be so!  That we would seek our sustenance from God by resting in Him, listening for Him, spending time with Him, and ceasing to strive for the things He has already promised to provide!