The Best Things Happen When I’m Dancing: Part 2

by hans peter meyer

About a year or so ago I started to write about the things that bring great joy into my life. Family. Marriage. Food. Friends. Dancing. There are others. In fact, there are so many things that bring joy into my life, that it isn't a case of writer's block that challenges me, but of distractibility. I am an imminently distractible fellow. As I get older I have more and more pleasurable distractions to choose from. Lucky me. As one of my dearest friends keeps telling, "You really do live the life of Riley!"

One of the recent highlights in this "life of Riley" was when I was invited by a friend to participate in a Viennese Waltz performance. Her partner couldn't make one of the performances, and she thought I might make a suitable second-stringer.

I'm a sucker for dancing. The more opportunities I have to dance, the more I love to dance. And, I love the idea of performance. I think I used to be a bit of a wallflower: shy about standing out, and wary of those who sought the limelight. But that's changed. As I get older, and more comfortable with my Leonine nature, the limelight has become a warm, comfortable place. I'm like my cats, Oskar and Sancho Panza: I adore attention. Lucky for me, I'm surrounded by folks who love to scratch me behind the ears, say nice things to me – and invite me to dance!Viennese Waltz is a beautiful and exacting dance. It's fast paced, whirling and running around the dance floor 123-123-123, all the while looking relaxed and elegant. Very aerobic. Very challenging. Very cool. My friend Vlasta made me a gift when she asked me to plunge in. It was a steep learning curve (I really didn't know the dance, but I also seem to love steep learning curves). We'd have a serious rehearsal schedule. I'd be coached by her and Daphne. I'd have to find a tux with tails (thanks John!). I'd have to learn to look confident and elegant as I whirled around a ballroom with a beautiful woman in my arms, with lots of folks watching... How could I say no? Yet another case of life not getting much better than this!

But it does get better, on a regular basis. And part of that is because through dancing I've not only plugged into joyful activity; I've also plugged into a community that can't help but feet and bodies and spirits to the music. And it's a movable feast: no matter where I go, if I get up to dance, as I ask women who I don't know to dance, I get plugged into a world where people are smiling, laughing, enjoying each other, enjoying the beauty of social dancing. I absolutely love to spend time in this space.

Recently, after dancing for several hours at my favourite hall (we really are very lucky in the town I call home), a group of us crossed the road to the Legion. We'd exhausted ourselves with salsa, samba, Viennese, and pretty much every other dance style that Valdance throws at us. The Legion becomes a place to wind down over a beer. Maybe get up and do a few foxtrots, a slow waltz, some swing.

At one point late in the evening I was just shuffling around with a dear friend. Our feet sore, legs tired, it was enough to just hold each other and move gently. And so I had the chance to look around (as a lead, I'm usually focused on my partner, on where I'm leading us, on steering through "traffic," etc). What I saw was a host of us dancers, most of us "loose ends" – men and women either single or with partners who were sitting out the dance or who didn't dance – all of us with smiles on our faces, turning and moving and laughing. And all I could think was how blessed I am, to be, in that moment, at the centre of the known universe. All that mattered in that moment moving around, small eddies of joy forming a larger circle of joy.

And that's why I say that the best things happen when I'm dancing. I've met lovers and wives through dancing. I've developed rich friendships through dancing. I continue to be mentally and physically challenged through dancing. I've encouraged other men to take up dancing, telling them that, among other things, it's one of the greatest gifts a man can give to the woman he loves, to learn to dance with her.

So how did the Viennese performance go? Frankly, rehearsals weren't all that fun to get to. Some afternoons I'd have rather done something else – until I got there, and saw the smile on my partner's face, until I felt the juice moving through my body and felt the smile on my face, a soul-deep smile. After an hour of rehearsal I wanted more.

As for the performance itself, for 3+ minutes it was heaven. We were a beautiful group, but the best of the bunch was my partner. She looked stunning in her dress, but what really shone was her smile and her attitude – that this 3+ minutes of whirling and running was about fun, as much as it was about "performance." And I had lots of fun!

Thanks to Vlasta + Daphne who coached me through the rehearsals. Thanks to John + John for their coaching and for the use of a tux. Thanks to Val and the Viennese Waltz group for being so open to my last-minute participation. I am so blessed to have people and opportunities like this in my life. The best things in my life really do flow from my time on the dance floor.

ps. A great way to connect with dance in my town is through the Dancing in the Comox Valley facebook page.

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[a version of this article was published in the mid-June Island Word ]

©hanspetermeyer.ca / 2009

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