Zonchoroai, the Living Dancer

"And here you are again, contemplating all the efforts & the progress you've made in your art since the beginning, when you still had no clue how to achieve a single step. You are duly proud of yourself, when you look at your work in the mirror, if it's a series of dance steps or a combination, or at your canvas if it's a painting, or you hear a recording of your music. Yet somehow you still fear that you've not looked enough and that there will come a time when you will notice a mistake, a mistake you can't fix, and you'll be frustrated & unsatisfied. You'll attempt to fix it, and through your effort, you will look at yourself rather than feel yourself, and you will lose that spontaneity for a time, which makes the pleasure of the artist. Through that effort you'll attempt to be rid of your mistake, to make that faulty step look better.

"It is all well & good; but a dancer on a stage doesn't have a mirror to see themselves in it and be sure that they look good. Because they feel dance, rather than see or think it, they need not see themselves that they are beautiful, because they feel beautiful. The seeing part is reserved to the audience, but the dancer must feel, feel alone, because the feeling of movement is the life in movement. It is not enough to move: you must feel. Looking at yourself in a mirror blots out the feeling for a little time; better to record oneself, and see the entire result afterwards, than break the contact with your audience and with yourself to verify that you look good, that you are doing things properly.

"The living dancers do not need to look in the mirror, for they know the one important thing is to feel, and nothing else is important; they are confident that their feeling translates into their movement, and they are confident in their audience that the channel is opened and they are understanding & receptive. Thus are all great artists: they know that they don't appear to others in the audience as they appear to themselves in the mirror or through their own eyes. They are seen through the eyes of their audience, and they are grateful for the gift of interpretation. And how can they perform with equal drama & beauty, if their eyes are fixed on themselves?"

- The Living Dancer