I am a dancer.
I twirl, leap, and spin.
I jump, pirouette, and tap.
I am a dancer.
I feel pain and fear.
I feel defeat and failure.
Yet, I keep going.
I smile, I practice, I perform.
I have grace and beauty.
I do not dance because I am happy,
I am happy because I dance.
I hear the applause.
I perform and do my best.
Sometimes I fail.
I don’t give up.
For I am a dancer.
I am brave and strong.
I dance not for fame and glory.
But for how I feel inside.
I am happiness, joy, love, and excitement.
Strife, talent, joy.
Determination and beauty.
I am a dancer.
- Author unknown
‘Tis not enough that ev’ry Stander-by
No glaring Errors in your Steps can ‘spy;
The Dance and Music must so nicely meet,
Each Note must seem an Echo to your Feet;
A nameless Grace must in each Movement dwell,
Which words can ne’er express, nor Precepts tell…
- Soame Jenyns
I praise the dance,
for it frees people from the heaviness of matter
and binds the isolated to community.
I praise the dance, which demands everything:
health and a clear spirit and a buoyant soul.
Dance is a transformation of space, of time, of people,
who are in constant danger of becoming all brain,
will, or feeling.
Dancing demands a whole person,
one who is firmly anchored in the center of his life,
who is not obsessed by lust for people and things
and the demon of isolation in his own ego.
Dancing demands a freed person,
one who vibrates with the equipoise of all his powers.
I praise the dance.
O man, learn to dance,
or else the angels in heaven will not know
what to do with you.
- Saint Augustine
