Something to believe in and Contact improve

I have recently been rediscovering what it is like to live in the here and now. After a long jounrey of living everywhere EXCPET now, I was finally introduced to Contact Improve by Scott Wells at my university, and the things i learned in his class about dance and life I plan on taking with me everywhere I go. This is relevant because of the way our society works.

This weekend my band played a fund raiser event. It. Was. Rough. Not because we were unprepared. I, in fact, give MAJOR kudos to the people who tried to organize and plan it, but the crowd must have missed it was a concert, because when I got up to perform, I felt more like I was at a golf course than a concert. We were getting nothing... and these poor suckers had paid MONEY to sit and look like I was killing them softly. And in turn, if you read my previous blog, this was really just bringing MY energy down and back into this awful funk of limbo I have been feeling for weeks, and apathy was rearing its ugly head at me....

Because of the outside venue, just about anyone could wander along to hear us... and that is exactly what happened. Out of nowhere, came a homeless man and sat nearby, and it wasn't more than two minutes that he sat before he jumped up, came within feet of microphone...... and Danced.

He. danced.

In that moment, this man who had nothing but the cart he had wheeled to our site, was happy enough to dance.

And guess what... people, these people who paid money, were LAUGHING at him.

Now, maybe I am biased because I have been studying dance for longer than anyone there, but there is a Japanese proverb that says, "We are fools whether we dance or not, so we might as well dance."when I go to a concert, and I have to pay my hard earned money that I make at a less-than- fun job to go to a fundraiser, a concert, or anything, I am gonna get my monies worth. And this man, was satisfying his need to express an appreciation to us for bringing him this joy to his day... So he danced.

And suddenly, my grey cloud lifted from my head, and the whole band's energy seemed to swing upward, because FINALLY, it was like we weren't just playing for ourselves anymore.

And yes, you could argue that my peers were laughing because they were uncomfortable... but you could also argue they were laughing because they were ignorant.

I am HOPING it was the former.