The Ceremony of Dance

We open the shades to our sacred space, and our joy expands.  Our street shoes have been removed so that we can tread lightly across the gray satin floors.   We slide on our dance shoes, and as we do so, we begin to slide into the community we have created with one another  Dance has brought us together, but it is our souls that have brought us to dance. 

The music is now seeping into the space, rolling across the floor and into our bodies.  We are off on another journey of exploring movement, and ourselves.  Arms lift like wings, then fall like flower petals.  Reaching away from engaged torsos, legs unfold and stretch, like ribbons unrolling themselves. Our bodies rise and fall, sway side to side, flick and flutter - together.  We are a band of banshees, a row of swans, a strand of pearls. 

We each are finding our bliss here, in this meditative movement we call dance, and we are doing it together.  We strive to work harder, to balance longer, to reach higher, to beat faster, to turn more.  It is with a sense of grace that we do all of this.  We glisten with sweat and our chests swell with breath.  We are alive!  Alive! ALIVE!

As the ceremony we call class comes to a close, we find ourselves delighted in our accomplishments (de-lighted, "of the light").  We have met ourselves in this space.  We have kissed the cheek of God.  We are full. 

We slide our feet back into those street shoes and walk out into the world more graceful, more mindful, more powerful, just more.  

We danced.