"Have you ever refused to dance, because you were shy, or embarrassed or awkward, or thought you were not good enough and people would laugh? In fact I tell you, you are made to dance, you were born to dance, as all human beings are made to dance & born to dance. You are afraid to dance badly because you think dance is a technical demonstration. Dance is not technique, it is Movement: and Movement is Life.
"Knowing this, can you renounce the joy of Life because you are afraid others might frown or laugh at the manifestment of the Life within you? Can you crush that impulse, that energy of Love deep in your heart for fear that it might appear to others as a lack, instead of a gift? Every life is a gift; Life itself is your greatest and most glorious gift. Would you deprive yourself of enjoyment of the gift of Life, and others of witnessing your enjoyment thereof? Verily any who laugh at what they see as without skill are committing a crime against Life! Do not listen to them: shut your ears to their comments, blind your eyes to their smiles; only your teacher, who knows your gift and your difficulties, can help you better express yourself through more & more expressive movement. Listen to them only, and to yourself! Thus will you better be able to hear the voice of your heart, and see the path before you.
"Thus then, next time you're afraid to dance before others, or even to let yourself dance alone, think of Life: and everything will take on meaning, this I promise you! It might be that you will be surprised of your own gift, your own talent; but you must dance for the feeling of the movement as you execute it, not for the result. When in a group your embarrassment disappears because the enthusiasm of all the others pervades you: and yet you in yourself, you and you alone are the Universe! Why, then, would you need others to feel unbounded joy in the exercise of your Life force? You don't! And so, dance! In a group of dozens, or alone, before an audience or in the loneliness of your room, trained in the art of dance or ignorant of the most basic rules, dance!"
-The Living Dancer
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