Moving rhythmically to music is what everyone calls dancing. But believe it, you won’t even need music if you dance to the rhythm of your body. As Martha Graham truly said, “Dance is the hidden language of the soul”, and that’s so true. You often hear people saying that they are a ‘non-dancer’, they can’t dance. It’s just a stereotype and only because someone can’t move in a certain way or on particular music, doesn’t make anyone a non-dancer. However, everybody can dance. “To dance is to be out of yourself. Larger, more beautiful, more powerful… This is power, it is glory on earth and it is yours for the taking” – Agnes De Mille
I was a child when I started dancing and performing. I was never a trained dancer, actually it never really bothered me. For me, dancing was expressing and pouring my heart out and it still is. As I grew up I tried learning many dance forms and dance became my passion. My inner self got immersed in the beauty of movements and the ultimate rhythm of my body. I started worshiping dance. I never had any ideal though. Achieved many milestones as I grew up. However, as they say, things never last long. Back then dancing as a career wasn’t approved by “Society” and hence couldn’t pursue dance as a career. I left dancing. Later after years, I realized how much I miss dancing, how much I miss being myself, how much I miss the Rhythm and I decided to pick up from where I left. I took admission in India’s best dance company. Thanks to my dance school and the instructors, I fell in love with myself and my dance all over again. I promised myself to never leave dancing again.
However, the journey ahead wasn’t easy. I often get this a lot “Are you able to dance and learn at this age?”, “Are you sure you want to try difficult things now?”, “Ballet? Now?”. I know with age catching things up becomes difficult and takes a lot of time, but it’s not impossible. There is no right or wrong age for dancing. Dance is an emotion. Isn’t it?
There are dancers who dance to express or for fun and there are dancers who get trained and pursue dancing as a career, may that be performing or teaching. It’s a human tendency towards dancers that they are a non-essential part of the society and dance is mere entertainment and nothing more. Dancers go through a lot of struggle and spend many hours, days, years to get trained to be a professional. Dancers are not just performing artists; their bodies are also the instruments through which the art is created. The quality of this art, therefore, necessarily depends on the physical qualities and skills that dancers possess. The stronger and more flexible a dancer’s body, the more capable it is of a wide range of movement. Nearly all professional dancers start training at a young age in order to shape and develop their bodies correctly.
Let’s have a look at some amazing benefits of dancing.
Dancing allows people to express how they feel at a given moment, helps in expressing themselves. People come together through dance. It provides entertainment for people of all ages, races, and backgrounds, it develops a sense of community and team spirit. Dancing helps bodies and minds relax as the music and surroundings take people away from their anxiety and frustration for a while, it’s a source of relaxation. Also, dance builds confidence, self-esteem, and discipline.
Not just emotionally, dance helps keep oneself fit and healthy. Dancing is a great form of aerobic exercise since it works many muscles in the body. Muscles become stretched, conditioned, and toned while the heart rate increases, pumping blood at a faster rate. Many people dream to have a dancer’s body. Dancing helps improve mood, reduce stress and anxiety. Within the scientific community, a growing number of researchers have proven that, while dancing, an abundance of mood-improving chemicals are released within the body of the dancer. According to research carried out by The Arts in Psychotherapy, when unleashed, these chemicals help improve one’s mental state; even one “lively” session of dance can reduce depression.
After having a major setback in life, dance was my rescue. The dance was my peace. The dance was the only thing I loved. Every time I grooved, dance took me to some another world. As hypothetical it may sound, but dance proved the greatest therapy and made me feel alive. Dark times seemed brighter day by day and I could witness a lot of positive changes mentally and physically over the period of time.
As Merce Cunningham said, “You have to love dancing to stick to it. It gives you nothing back, no manuscripts to store away, no paintings to show on walls and maybe hang in museums, no poems to be printed and sold, nothing but that single fleeting moment when you feel alive.”
Lastly, Ashley Lobo once said, “Dance is true sharing, a listening with an open soul, A giving of your being whole, honest, fearless, real & you”. Dancers carry this through their entire life.
For there’s no greater peace,
Puts everything at ease,
When you laugh or cry,
Shall never shy,
Excuse from drama,
Peace from trauma,
Dance brings sunshine,
You age like wine.
-Nikita Zanvar
Dance Inc. India does not endorse the opinions/views expressed in the blog. The thoughts expressed in the blog are solely of the author.
