Saturday 20 February 2010

finding centre

Since I began dancing, I treasure my centre. This rare centredness is a revelation that I guess only certain physical training can teach one to savour, though we all live in daily gravity. Dancers, acrobats, gymnasts, practitioners of tai chi and yoga may touch this. As slippery as perfect pitch, the value of a complex number?

The special moments where the body perfectly aligns, a miracle of living counter-forces finding stillness in a universe of constant motion. You could stay suspended forever on one leg, five metatarsals, a hand, a head. You are invicible and if you leave it for another direction, another level, a dynamic, it is because you so choose. I'm not a natural at balancing, so those fleeting moments come and go and it's a constant fight to rediscover them with practice, a teacher or a physiotherapist. With belief that I'll find it again, and hope that it will be more often than not. Perhaps it's an addiction. Experiencing that centre personally or vicariously, is just thrilling. The ultimate connection, control, harmony, and surrender.