By Tony Wan
This post is part of 30 Days of Gaga. A Non-Dancer’s Diary of Dance. Read Day 1.
Day 6
Our teacher steps into the room. Her hair is tied back. Her black long sleeve T-shirt is rolled up to the elbow. Delicate arms stick out.
“Imagine you are floating in liquid.”
I extend my arms to my sides, and try to soften my chest. I am TERRIBLE at this. At best, I can only mimic what the teacher is doing. Poorly.
Growing up I’ve been told, “Stand up tall with your chest out and shoulders back.” On top of that, add weightlifting, dips, and chin ups.
The result: I feel both scrawny and stiff. As physically imposing as Ant Man, and as supple as The Thing.
My arms do not talk to each other. There is a wall of orange rock between them. My only option: drill a tunnel.
My left arm drills right.
My right arm drills left.
Contact.
Through the freshly-drilled tunnel, my arms yell at each other: “Hellooooo, can you hear me?”
I feel my left arm move in relation to my right, and vice versa.
My arms are floating!
“Let the echo travel through your body.”
I’ve spent my life manipulating things, moving my hands from my hands, like they’re implements attached to my body.
For the first time, I feel my arms moved by an echo traveling through my body. Instead of forcing it, making it happen, what if I just allow it to emerge?
Maybe that’s the way I want to move through life.
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Follow Tony Wan’s journey through a full month of classes with biweekly posts here and on his blog.
