It is my suspicion that dance is inherently easy. Far easier than we give it credit for, and that actually moving is innate within everyone.
When you are a child and you begin to walk, you have everyone on your side. Your Mum and Dad and family all gather around to encourage you to take those first steps. None of them sit there and say, 'walking is hard', 'it takes years of dedicated practice,' 'you might not be able to do this, you're just not co-ordinated enough'. Nothing of the sort. When you think about how complex the act of getting up off the ground and taking your first steps as a baby are, it's an incredible feat. You lift your head and then your torso, find your balance and take those steps. Pretty soon you're running all over the place and are getting into everything. You felt great about taking those first steps and kept trying because you knew you could do it. No pre-programming to tell you that walking was difficult and that you might not be good at it. In fact, quite the opposite. For most of us, we couldn't have had a more welcoming and safe space to practice and try until we got it.
When it comes to dancing, if you have learned to walk, you've already done the hard part. You're already up on your feet and well co-ordinated to get from here to there.
When there is an attitude of 'dance is easy, it's for everyone to do' then dance can be a whole different experience for a lot of people. After all, moving our bodies is what we do as human beings. I believe this is a matter of remembering how to move and cutting through the crap we've heard about dance being hard, for the co-ordinated, or the lucky few. It is our right to dance and move our bodies, and like taking those first few steps – no-one can stop you.
Comments