What is Dance?

I was asked to describe what dancing meant to me.  Dancing can be seen as different things to different people.  Ultimately, dancing is a means to an end.  Dance is a vehicle or expression through which one can communicate to others.  People choose cars and trucks based on how that vehicle allows them to feel the road, how it feels when turning a corner.  Dancers feel the floor much the same way.  They stop sooner and accelerate faster.  A dancer is like a fine-tuned machine.  Dancing is an ever growing process, a rose that never blossoms but to the onlookers.  Dancing is a lot of things to a lot of people.  It can be anything to anyone.  What would you like to gain from dance?

I often wonder what a dance instructor should be called: kinesiologist, movement analyst, balance control operator, teacher, or friend.  How should the dancer be known?  Should they be known as a move mentalist, performer, student, driver, or treasure hunter?  If dancers are treasure hunters, what are they looking for?  The more I study dance, the more I learn that there is no end, but it is merely the journey that counts.  Jonathan Livingston Seagull had a similar realization about movement.  He learned that flying was not about speed, but one would in fact reach a point where flying would be unnecessary.  Neo, in The Matrix, also had such a realization when he no longer had to dodge the bullets of the Agents.  As stated above, dance is a means, not an end.  Use movement with others to brighten your life, not to be your life.  Dance is a rose bud on the plant of life.  Treat it as such, and you will be happier because of it.  You may get pricked from time to time, but when you learn how to handle a rose, it only becomes easier to share its beauty with others.  This is what dance means to me.

-Freddie Ciampi