go on and fly
Sometimes we all take out our sketch books and draw together.
We talk while we hunch over our pictures, trying to make the world better I guess, stroke by stroke.
This is what came out tonight.
write it down and see what happens.
The inspiration is a photograph I love.
My friend Erin and I are in ballet class. We are hard core, in pink tights and point shoes and just as serious as the buns we wear in our hair.
But we’re flying.
Or at least getting close.
The picture was taken during grand allegro, which was always my favorite part of class. It’s when you get to really move. You take up space and get to jump the way you do when you’re a kid and there is only sand or grass or something wide and lovely under your feet.
Only now the jumps are turned out and landed in fifth position or something close.
But still, it’s more like flying then I’ll ever feel in the 10th row of a plane, sandwiched between two people who are just as grumpy about the time their alarm went off that morning as I am.
I think that’s part of the reason why I love dancing so much. It’s transcendent. It’s being told that people stay close to the ground as a general rule and then getting let in on the secret of flying. It’s spending so much time listening to music and then being told you get to be the music. It’s thinking that life, more than anything else, is hard and feeling the pain of that; but then being told to dance till it hurts and nobody thinking it strange that this new kind of pain is so much better than the pain you left at the studio door.
So go on and fly, I guess.
Or at least keep trying.
in I Lift My Eyes Up, Loved Ones, photography, Thoughts and Feelings
as caption, class, close, erin, grand allegro, pain, pink tights, point shoes, sketch books, stroke, stroke by stroke
I think that’s why Jack likes taekwondo. He’ll practice a ridiculous spin jump kick over and over and over but when he gets it, he floats off the ground as if he can control the amount of gravity he will use.
Me? I’m lucky if I can stay standing when I want to.
Keep flying, my dear.
But I know that there are other things you do that make you “fly,” so to speak:-)
Airplanes, mostly. Occasionally a helicopter or two.
and don’t forget about the hovercrafts.
yes…know what you mean about “flying”, exhilirating transportation ….i still feel that at 62 when songs play and my body becomes the music…but the songs are rock and roll….and i dance alone now because who the heck wants to see a 62 yr old jellying around…but when the music plays i am in a place of sheer joy…
I love that you dance. Please don’t stop…
I envy artistic people who can sketch and dance and sing and play and fly. I fear we administrative types are missing out on the better things
I really don’t think so; there’s more to being a dreamer and having an artistic soul than sketches and songs, I think.
thanks jessica for wanting me to continue to dance….one of my girls said i will bedancing all the time in heaven…i love music and movement
Darby was just telling me that you really do love to dance–it brought a smile to her face:-)