A friend who is also a dancer sent me this video, The Dance. After Tweeting it, I now have to say that the story told in the video is so much like writing.
What you see is a woman in her 30’s performing a modern dance routine with a man who has one leg. Surprisingly it was not until the middle of the routine that I noticed the woman had only one arm.
And that was only after reading the story of the couple listed in the sidebar of the video. I was so captivated, mesmerized, by the intricate moves each dancer made.
The young man using his crutch stood tall and supported the woman, lacking an arm. He turned and twisted in ways that I with both legs and arms would never attempt nor could I perform, lest breaking one or both of them, or god forbid, suffering a greater injury.
At the height of the routine, the young man places the stump of the leg he is lost upon the handle of his crutch. With one of his two hands he takes the female dancer’s one hand and guides her in walking up the crutch that he is holding firm and still.
On reaching his shoulder he lifts her in the air where she rests above his shoulder.
The two, supported by his crutch achieve a physical and spiritual transcendence made possible not simply by his crutch, but most importantly both dancers’ willingness to accept support from the other.
In their brokenness they lean upon each other and the two become stronger than if they possessed both their arms and legs.
The story revealed in the video, like great stories evokes a wellspring of feelings. Emotions form the fabric of life. They are what connect each of us to ourselves, and to those around us.
And yet individuals, families, entire cultures such as ours resist accepting age old this truth rendered fresh in its solidness by the two dancers.
Great stories consist of truths such as this, themes that make us look back and review not only what has been handed down to us, truisms but more often illusions that in first receiving them we take them to our breast, yet over time come to question as the storms of life try their strength and our sturdiness.
Like the symbol of the crutch used by both dancers in the video, our writing holds us steady. Those of us committed to telling stories of the heart, ours, and the ones of others, lean upon the words we pen, or type and peck out upon the keys of our computers. IN their best form, our stories evoke emotions much like we experience when observing the two dancers.
They cause us to feel, bring us to moments of pause. They call us to question, and ponder what we have been told to hold dear.
They urge us to examine the waters of life of which our belief systems had held true, and account for the ones wherein we have discovered holes. They challenge us to revisit beliefs that have drained our hearts of energy, run dry our souls, caused us to suffer. And in so doing, our stories like all art and the dancers make us stronger.
Below I have listed the story of the two dancers in the video. I encourage you to watch the video then before you read the story, ask yourself, what did the story mean? How, if it did, inspire you?
Please share–the video, and your thoughts about it.
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COURAGE: The Dance
In a Chinese modern dance competition on TV one very unique couple won one of the top prizes. The lady, in her 30’s, was a dancer who had trained since she was a little girl. Later in life, she lost her entire left arm in an accident and fell into a state of depression for a few years.
Someone then asked her to coach a Children’s dancing group. From that point on, she realized she could not forget dancing. She still loved to dance and wanted to dance again. She started to do some of her old routines, but, having lost her arm, she had also lost her balance.
It took a while before she could even make simple turns and spins without falling. Then she heard of a man in his 20’s who had lost a leg in an accident. He had also fallen into the usual denial, depression and anger type of emotional roller coaster; but, she was determined to find him and persuade him to dance with her…
He had never danced, and to dance with one leg…”Are you joking with me?? “No way!”
She didn’t give up, and he reluctantly agreed thinking, “I have nothing else to do anyway.” She started to teach him dancing. The two broke up a few times because he had no concept of using muscle, how to control his body, and knew none of the basic things about dancing. When she became frustrated and lost patience with him, he would walk out. Eventually, they came back together and started training seriously.
They hired a choreographer to design routines for them. She would fly high (held by him) with both arms (a sleeve for an arm) flying in the air. He could bend horizontally supported by one leg with her leaning on him, etc.
In the competition, as you will see, they legitimately won the competition.
Beautiful and inspiring. Thank you!
.-= patry francis´s last blog ..ALL IS WELL =-.
I’m glad you found uplifting energy in this.
Thanks so much.
I didn’t read your whole post until after I watched the video. I too didn’t realize the woman only had one arm until halfway through the video. There was so much being told in that five minute video. It’s what we writers would take 300 pages to tell.
Thanks for sharing it.