By Tony Wan
This post is part of 30 Days of Gaga. A Non-Dancer’s Diary of Dance. Read Day 1.
Day 11
“Shake. Feel the echo in your arms and hands.”
When I shake my booty, I feel the echo travel into my left arm. But in my right arm? Nothing. Nada. Zilch.
I can’t figure out why.
The echo stops in my shoulder. Perhaps it’s my old shoulder injury. I try shaking more… Then engaging more… Then relaxing more… Nothing works.
“Block your shoulders. Shake only your pelvis.”
This I can do.
“Now, block your pelvis. Shake only your shoulders.”
This too I can do.
Faster and faster, our teacher asks us to switch between blocking the shoulders and blocking the pelvis.
My brain gets confused. The signals criss-cross. I block when I’m supposed to shake. And I shake when I’m supposed to block.
“Now, don’t block. Allow both your pelvis and shoulder to shake.”
BLAM!
I hear the echo in my right arm.
Ignition… my body has just been hot-wired.
I feel a release down the entire right side of my body. Energy starts to flow. I wonder if the teacher sees the expression on my face. It’s an ear-to-ear WOW.
Here’s what I think happened: even though my injured shoulder was strong again, it remained disconnected from the rest of me. What it needed was confusion.
And connection.
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Follow Tony Wan’s journey through a full month of classes with biweekly posts here and on his blog.
