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Guys who started dance study as 'creaky' adults speak out! I'm looking for new stories. If you have one to tell, please e-mail me.

The Women's Page
Tales from the adult dance student avant garde

Awakening
This is my story. It is by no means finished.

I was influenced by a dance teacher at a local community college where I work. When I was interpreting for a deaf student who was taking her class, I had the opportunity to watch her teach, and listen to her speak to her students.

I felt that I was being drawn to dance even though I am large and very inflexible. The dance teacher, Luana, accepted me in her class, and called me a dancer as she did to all her students in the class.

My life has been a struggle with foot problems, weight problems and feeling very frustrated. I knew that I had a calling in dance. I knew where I belonged, but circumstance seemed to shout very loudly that I was wasting my time. Here is what changed my life.

I joined a dance production class two years ago in which Luana was choreographing a piece called 'Freedom Ring.' The music was outstanding, and had a short narration from Martin Luther King Jr.'s speech about having a dream. The theme of the concert was acknowledging our limitations and putting them down.

All the lies and excuses we had been told over the years were represented by ropes. My job was twofold. I was to hold the rope that was tied around a dancer's waist. I could not let her go because I was an extension of her limitations. It chokes me up just thinking about it! She danced, twisting and turning, pulling and pushing, and yet, I could not let go. After the second of four performances, we became as one.

Then it was my turn to come out with my rope. Through all the rehearsals I had to really do some soul searching as to what my limitations really were. I had to try to express them through dance. This was a 30-minute piece, so there were many dancers going through this same process, each coming to terms with the rope tied around her waist, and what it meant in her real life. As a result of struggling with all my insecurities and doubts, this poem was birthed:

Awakening
My heart is aflame with new desire!
Like a rosebud bursting into a flower full of color and fragrance.
Although my hands ache with each aerial movement,
I must realize the new passion welling up inside me!

I must move on to higher levels, deeper understanding.
Dance. . . a birthing from deep within!
A passion unlike anything yet experienced.
I've found my calling!

Bodies, locked in memories silenced, trapped in abstract worlds separated from reality.
Words and language cannot unlock their souls.
What is their language? Touching, feelings, gestures and sounds?
It's there!
Laughing, saying everything is fine, but shadows, darkness lurk in deep places.

Dance. . .mirrors, smooth clear waters reflect what is real.
Movement. . .cannot hide. . .joy!

AWAKENING!
-- Paula Warner