china dispatch #9 - dancing

It was a burden to go to those play rehearsals, a journey of almost an hour through the huge city.    But at least I was doing something;  Catherine went with me most days, but just sat and read, though at times they had their wi-fi on and she could correspond.    Several times she wondered why I had to be doing this with our free time.

The other day I asked her if she would want me to do it if we had the choice all over again.    She said without hesitation, "Oh yeah!"    That's because of Friday night.

I mentioned that we'd danced and danced.    What happened was that after Friday's show the theater transformed back into a dance club and the music started playing and the lights started spinning, and we didn't actually have to do anything but stay right where we were.    It was like one of those montages in movies.    So we stayed right where we were.    The DJ picked the right kind of music for the occasion:  lots of 80s pop and not-so-pop, rather than the serious electronica or hip-hop that you sometimes hear, so that the effect was of light-hearted nostalgia.    Several of the cast members, who had stayed around, were definitely in the mood for levity and celebration.

We found a new friend, Anna Grace, whom we both really connected with, and had great conversation.    When it came time to dance, we both went right onto the dance floor and danced —– something Catherine is usually loath to do.   

Catherine's group of friends think of her as the wild one, the Phoebe, the instigator, the whimsical caution-to-the-wind girl.    When you first meet her you might not catch on to that aspect of her personality, though, because she doesn't open up that side of her until she feels perfectly safe.

She must've felt safe Friday, because caution indeed went to the wind, and she danced like I've never seen her dance in public before.    Maybe St Vitus Day (only a few days before) was exerting a gravitational pull.    At one point the group got into a circle and took turns doing solo dances in the middle:  Catherine jumped right in and freestyled while everyone whooped.    Some of the cast members asked me afterward if she's usually like that.    Hm, what to say?    She usually is like that, with me, and with her friends and family.    But even then she's never liked dancing because she doesn't think she's a good dancer.    Of course she was just as good as anyone else there.    The key, of course, is to not try not to look stupid.    You just dance and don't care what anyone thinks, and you magically do look great.    (One of the reasons we enjoyed the show Felicity was that there were often opportunities for the characters to dance, in clubs, dorm rooms, or apartments, and they never seemed concerned about how silly they looked.)

A few of us went up to the rooftop terrace, from which you can see the beautifully twinkling lake and the city distantly surrounding it, and enjoyed the breeze and lively conversation.    That was a welcome change.    It was beyond hot in the club;  we'd sweated and sweated and kept dancing anyway.    We had, as the phrase goes, danced like there was no tomorrow.

And yet that phrase doesn't quite capture the truth.    Because I believe that what happens tomorrow depends on how you dance today.   

You can read up on mambos and tangos, you can watch the kids on Felicity let loose, you can enjoy listening to the music, you can tap your feet or do your shoulders back and forth in your chair —– but until you've danced you haven't danced.   

There are people in life who sit at their tables watching all the fun, and there are people who stand around at the edges bobbing their heads, never daring to risk making fools of themselves, and then there are people who get right into the middle of the floor, where the sound is the pumpiest and the lights are the dazzliest, and send their philosophy coursing through their bloodstream.

That's why we're here.    That's why we're here on earth, and that's why Catherine and I are here in China, and that's why we're together, and that's why, last Friday night, we joined mind and body and spirit in a joyful tarantella.