Contemporary Jazz Dance Performance

 Some days, you just have to go see a contemporary jazz dance performance just for the sake of going to see a contemporary jazz dance performance.  Why not?  When was the last time you did that?  Maybe last week.  Maybe never.  Regardless, it’s something that you can say you’ve done after you’ve been to one.

See?  That was easy.  I just had an enriching life experience.  No TV.  No DVD.  No internet video.  I sat in a seat next to my wife and watched a contemporary jazz dance performance.  I enjoyed it.  She gave me tickets for Christmas.  We watch “So You Think You Can Dance” together when it is on.  She knows I love the show, so she bought me tickets to see a real dance performance.  

It was awesome.  The dancers got sweaty.  You could hear them breathing heavy, grunting.  You could hear their feet drag across the stage.  They played cool music.  Some of the music was dudes beat-boxing.  My wife laughed because it reminded her of our little guy.  He likes to drop beats.  He does it in class.  We all refer to it as just another song in the soundtrack of his life.  He sometimes makes me think of the movie “I’m Gonna Git You Sucka.”  He just doesn’t have a band following him.  He does it himself.  So, when my wife said that about the music at the performance, I thought about my son and the movie, and I laughed.  Inside, of course.  

The dancers reminded me that we all have gifts, we all have art.  We want to give it.  We need to give it.  Why else would they spend a Friday night sweaty and panting and jumping around on a stage to an audience that didn’t even all stay around for the second half.  For a paycheck?  Sure, money is good.  We need it to live like everyone else in this country.  But the paycheck is a benefit.  What I watched on that stage reaffirmed what I know to be true: the pursuit of dreams and of passion trumps all else.  All things pale in comparison.  I felt blessed to partake in that gift.

So, thank you to those wonderful dancers in the North Shore Dance Company.  You really made me day.  

And thank you to my beautiful wife for such a thoughtful and meaningful gift.