Be You. Be Unique

Before you can Lead or Follow another person on the dance floor well, you have to understand who you are as a dancer, which is a challenge.

"Man, sometimes it takes you a long time to sound like yourself."

Miles Davis

A decade ago I made my best dance decision: My goal is not to dance like Fred Astaire or Frankie Manning or anybody else. My goal is to be the best Kent Davis dancer in the world. It is still an open question, but I think I’m getting there.

"I haven’t understood a bar of music in my life, but I have felt it."

Igor Stravinsky

Be yourself. Work to turn off the conscious brain and let your body and spirit express themselves.

"And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music."

Friedrich Nietzsche

Or, as Shel Silverstein says (A Light in the Attic):

"Do a loony-goony dance

'Cross the kitchen floor,

Put something silly in the world

That ain't been there before."

Listen to your music.

"If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away."

Henry David Thoreau

Not to say you shouldn't borrow everything wonderful that moves you.... your mix of Astaire and Manning and 1,000 other people is a tribute to all of them, and yourself.

"I stole everything I ever heard, but mostly I stole from the horns"

Ella Fitzgerald

Now here is an intimidating thought:

"It takes at least five years of rigorous training to be spontaneous."

Martha Graham

On the social dance floor, I have spent way more time than that learning to peal back the layers of dance connection, learning the forms and patterns, then, once in awhile, building them into a spontaneity of joy and connection with another dancer. I don't think I'm even close to what is possible.

It is intimidating that there is so much to learn about dancing.

OR

It is inspiring that there is so much to learn about dancing.

Take your pick!

Chester* Whitmore

UNIQUE!