An invitation to dance

All rights reserved by ravenwhois

All rights reserved by ravenwhois

Dancing is to healing chronic pain as vegetables are to a healthy diet, except more fun perhaps. The varieties of dance and possibilities to move your body are almost as vast.

If you are thinking Dancing with The Stars, you are on the wrong track, think more like folk dancing in the village, whether New England or somewhere in Africa. Everyone can do it and does. It is about having a good time.

Dancing is natural to our bodies– look at a two-year-old bouncing up and down to music. I watch people dance at our Farmer’s Market every week (except in the winter) and always marvel at the beautiful variety of dancers. Some of  the folks from a nearby home for the developmentally delayed, many in their senior years, come to dance with high school kids, college kids, mothers with babies in their arms, the toddlers and the 50-somethings and local elders.

A few years ago every Saturday, I delighted in watching a truly old woman in a wheelchair.  A older man who looked to be in his 70’s or 80’s– her son I learned later– would wheel her to the stage area. He then helped her stand and gently danced with her for a few songs.

Now that is one of my goals in life, to still be dancing in my older old age. Another inspiration to me is a lady, also probably in her 70’s who regularly attends the dance choreography class I go to at a health club. She does not do turns and spins, and her steps are small and measured. But she’s come two or three times a week for the past 7 years that I have danced there, and continues to learn new choreography to all kinds of music from show tunes to hip hop.

So here is my invitation. Find a way to dance. Folk dance, Zumba, Latin, Square Dance or Line Dance. Put on music in the kitchen. Become curious how your body wants to move. You may be surprised what feels good. ONLY do what feels good. AND don’t worry how you look.

Here it is again: the video of an old lady dancing down her steps