Dance-wherever-and-whenever-you-wish Month

April Dancing

Spring time walks are meant for dancers. But human beings, especially as adults, develop this appalling habit that we associate with dignity. We curtail our movements. Getting stiffer and stiffer as we age, and then complain about the loss of agility. We have International Dance Day on April 29th. Why don’t we make dancing in public – just like that – in April a social convention? 

Look at all the world in April.

Is this Dignified?

The hares don’t just move – they hop, they hip, they hip-hop
The birds don’t just fly – they flit, they swoop, they skim
The dogs don’t just run – they wander, they romp, they swagger
The snakes don’t just slither – they rattle, they pulse, they coil
The plants don’t just grow – they blossom, they reach, they sprout
The trees don’t just become green – they flower, they photosynthesize, they crown

I, too, feel the urge to prance and skip
But adults don’t just dance in meadows – they think, they weigh, they worry
When the mind leaps, and the body stays still
Where does the energy go?
It sings, it muses, it writes.
All the while asking: Is this dignified?

The other day, I walked with difficulty – you see what I wanted to do was skip, prance and twirl a jig or two. That’s spring time – like a coiled spring waiting to release its energy. I was on a trail with people. Adults who all seemed to be in a similar state of imbalance between the internal energy and what the world expects from us. I could see it in the size of their smiles.

How do you do Mrs Potts, and you, Mr Binns?

How marvelous it would be if we could do just as we please? Skip and sing. So what if Mrs Potts scowls or Mr Binns purses his lips. Alas! We do not do that. Not when one’s hair is graying. That’s when you are supposed to know better isn’t it? I could not help thinking of the young child who skipped to school as she was dropped off by an adult one morning. Most adults had the ‘office look’, but even they could not help smiling at the spring time exuberance of this child.

Mating in Springtime

As I walked on musing thus, I stopped to watch the spring time mating rituals with amusement. There were two wood ducks chasing after a female. Their bluish green heads glinting in the morning sunlight.

Elsewhere, a couple of blackbirds, and a pair of hummingbirds swooped in circles. Teasing each other, attracting their mate. That’s when the western grebes grabbed my attention. They ran, nay skipped and danced, across the waters – is there a touch of the basilisk in them?

I am not sure I recognize giggles in birds, but if I could anthropomorphize, that is what I would say – they giggled and reveled in each other’s company. They danced together on the waters, and then skimmed below the surface for, what I can only assume is, frolicking underwater.

When finally, they surfaced one after another, as though daring each other to see who could hold out the most, I laughed. They were far from where they swooped under, they managed to continue their play and resurfaced together before running on the water again.

Apparently, that is their mating ritual. Really – birds have the most beautiful mating rituals. Take the peacock for instance- this bird isn’t leaving anything to chance. 

Talk about dancing your way into hearts.

Dance-wherever-and-whenever-you-wish month

“I wish we would dance!” I said to the son later that day when I told him about International Dance Day.

“I think you already do that, amma. You just think you don’t. I saw you wiggling your hands just now!”

I laughed. “But I want to properly dance you know? Tap dance, ballet dance, classical dance, jazz dance. ”

He rolled his eyes.

Who would like to join me in petitioning for a dance-wherever-and-whenever-you-wish month?