dancing in the dark...not a la bruce

Okay, I know it's 12:15 am, but you should check out Imogen Heap's single, Canvas. Some of her lyrics are here:

Slow heart
Dark way
Down Love
Black Canvas revolve within,
You understand



Fragile,
Earth-way
Cracks in the temperature,
Keep it cool to give



The more you look, the less you see,
so close your eyes and start to breathe,
you said yourself,
this wasn't easy

This song takes me someplace else. I've always loved lyrical, a style of dance that marries jazz and ballet, and I love it because I think the movement allows for fuller expression of emotion and greater range of musicality than do either ballet or jazz. But I'm sure loads of professional dancers could argue that point. Perhaps it was my own limitations in dance that created this, or that the songs used for lyrical dances gave the body a means of expression that songs created for jazz or ballet routines did not.

Anyway, I think this song is really quite beautiful. I got up and started dancing in my room, with only the faint light from my computer screen and the bathroom light illuminating patches of wood floor.

My body felt so raw, so good. I fully recommend experiencing the body in this way as a wonderful way to end the day, especially to this kind of music. I've had years of dance training, but I'm definitely out of shape and less technically inclined now...so I say just let your body take you where it wants to go. Who cares what you look like? I have been emotionally and physically stagnant for too long, and I'm noting that as I open myself to creative outlets I used to rely upon my spirit begins to grow brighter and stronger. It is as if cells in my body are coming to life, or transmitting this sensory experience that the body in its potential state could not perceive.

So I say let art, be it music, dance, paintings, words--whatever it may be--let it take you outside of your comfortable existence and bring you someplace unfamiliar and unknown. Mmmm it is glorious.