Tuesday, April 1, 2008

Darkness and Light.

I was talking to a fellow dancer yesterday, and we were talking about emotional expression and crying in dance workshops... I said this:

We go into this dance thinking it's all fun and light, but if we really want to get something out of it, we have to face the dark within ourselves.

Some of the best workshops I've ever taken are the ones that have made me cry.... Not because the instructor was mean or overly demanding, but because the dancing has been so physically intense that I let down my emotional guard and the demons that I usually suppress from day to day come knocking on my proverbial door. When I take a moment to cry out my frustrations with myself and my expectations, I realize that I have broken through yet another emotional wall. I emerge victorious, ready to face the world again, having confronted painful memories and conquering them.

So much of our emotional existence is like that of the life of the Phoenix... we constantly immolate ourselves in our self-made fires, only to be reborn, stronger.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I sure do identify with this. In dance class, I would be embarrassed because all this emotion would well up which included crying. It definitely brings up a lot of old but pervasive issues.