Dancing--A Certain Step to Falling In Love

"We should consider every day lost on which we have not danced at least once."--Friederich Nietzsche

Jane Austen wrote in Pride and Prejudice, “To be fond of dancing was a certain step towards falling in love.”  I’ve always believed this to be true, because dancing is freedom, it’s expression.  It’s a natural high, and when we’re happy we love more. ​

My grandmother turned to me today and asked if I know how to waltz.  When I answered affirmatively she said, “Oh good.”  Then she went on to talk about “quick waltzes” and “skate waltzes,” and then she said the most remarkable thing.  She said, “Sometimes you may not know a certain dance, but you teach me and I teach you—it’s so much fun.” 

Now ain’t that the truth?  Isn’t that what love is?  We teach each other, often without even knowing it, and it’s fun.  Well, it’s not always fun, but in the grand scheme of things every time I look back at something I think, “Well, that was fun.”  Sometimes what I mean by fun is quite literal, and sometimes it’s kind of a sarcastic truth.  For example, as I’m wrapping up law school and looking back at the last three years I’m thinking, “Well, that was fun,” and I mean it quite literally even though I can’t say that every single day every little bit of law school was “fun” per say, but all in all it really was fun.   On the other hand, when I look back at certain relationships or flings, I think “Well, that was fun,” and I mean it in more of the sense that at least I now have a good story.

As for the teaching each other part, love is learning is life.  Dancing is like each time you fall in love.  Like when you first learn to dance a dance, you then have two choices.  You can either run with fear of tripping , falling, or taking the wrong steps, or you can go on learning, and just let the dance carry you.  When you’re dancing, you learn how to move your body, how to feel your body, how to control it, and how to express it.  It’s incredibly sensual and liberating.  And the good sensations that come with dancing teach you how to love yourself, which is the first step to falling in love, because you can’t love someone else without loving yourself first.

BIG LOVE & HUGS

Love,

Justine