Thinker. Dreamer. Lover

Although I promised that my blog post would be all about communication, I have to deviate from that initial proposition and write about dance.

It’s Friday evening, and after an outing for dinner and drinks with a good friend and a flailing attempt to join other friends at a pre-outing house party I instead headed home at 10pm, put on my pj’s, warm up a hot cup of cocoa and sat down to the DVR.

I recorded the new reality television show Live to Dance starring Paula Abdul as head judge. Although upon first viewing, it’s seemingly the standard talent/reality/variety show attempting to scout and showcase Americans talents the nation over, this show is different. To begin with the only talent is dance. People of all ages from 9 to 90 (no really there is one aspiring 90 year old young as Paula deems it, dancer) prance their tutus on stage in an endeavor to make their way to the judges short list round, the next round,  and eventually a chance to compete for half a million dollars.

I was impressed by the first act, a 9 year old self-taught boy who break danced his way into round 2. I was even charmed by the 83 year old woman and the 68 year old man  who dancing as a couple sassily and successfully boogey their “young hearts” to that same short list.

However what prompted me to blog were 3 women who were former Solid Gold dancers.

Here I must digress. As a child my mother and I immigrated to the United States when I was  5 years old. We arrived in America, well Miami so there was a lot of the comforts and familiarity of home specifically with the Spanish language which I spoke at home and which was often easily spoken everywhere in Miami. However, there was one place where I recall having a hard time expressing myself, to be the loquacious little girl that I was (my mother claims I was an earlier and avid talker). That place was school. I didn’t speak English and although I don’t remember the details, I recall the feeling of utter isolation and silence from those first days, weeks, months as I acclimated to a new language. I also remember coming home after school and unable to have expressed myself in word for the better part of 8 hours, I discovered a wonderful outlet that permitted me to feel through others all the emotions, feelings and thoughts that had remained unsaid throughout my day. I discovered TV and more than that I discovered Solid Gold and Dance Fever. I was barely a child and I just remember watching in awe, in joy, in sheer happiness as these dancers on TV where able to express themselves with their bodies. They moved so amazingly, so effortlessly, and with such expression! I remember in those early years of childhood religiously watching those shows and begging my mother and later my stepfather to take dance classes. Although this was never something that was granted me I took my love for dance to heart. Imitating all the burgeoning pop artists of the time. Putting on mini shows with friends; along with rollerskating I remember choreographing the neighborhood kids in dance/skate routines that we would perform on the long man-made Florida driveways of our street block.We performed to Tiffany, Debbie Gibson and to the hits of a young Madge. Later my interest in dance was transferred to the performing arts in middle school and high school via the dram club. [Note in middle school I attempted to try out for Cheerleading for this very reason, but I was awkward, frizzy haired, pimple faced and a bit chubby and did not make the team. (I know! Hard to believe given the babe I’ve turned into).]

Yet, fundamentally and deep down I have this unrequited love for dance. Today I am able to manifest it in limited capacity, recently in Zumba; but real dance….it seems a far away dream that I once had.

The Solid Gold oldies on the show- Live to Dance– where almost not sent to the next round by a 2 in 3 vote against them but last minute one of the judges stated that their show Solid Gold was what got him into dance. For him the inspiration became a reality. Although they were by far NOT one of the best acts to perform, from my humble experience as a spectator, they were trailblazers and they were role models.

Other acts that followed, the ones that were easily recognized as amazing all shared one thing in common. They brought happiness to the audience, they put a smile on your face, and the very good ones prompted you to feel, to live vicariously the emotion, the feeling, a story in movement. This is what I remember from when I was a child watching those shows on TV and this is what I still feel when I watch dance on TV or on the stage. There is a fervor, a love for the art that is contagious! The way the body can be trained to move and speak.

Perhaps this blog is about communication after all. Dance is the greatest example of non-verbal communication. An exemplary demonstration of how much can be said and can be understood by simple or complex movement, by the lengthening or the shortening of the arms, the legs, the core, by a sparkle or a sadness in the eyes, the mouth. Is there any medium like the body to weave a tale so profound that it directly speaks to your soul?

I’ve always wished as an adult that I would’ve been given the chance as a child to mold and train my body to this art form. Maybe it’s not too late. But even if it cannot be my body communicating in dance, the ultimate beauty of dance as an art is that it communicates from the performer to the spectator so spectacularly, it engages them in a dialogue so satisfactorily that the emotional response it provokes is perfectly suited.