Billy Elliot

If you have seen the movie, "Billy Elliot" then you know something about what I feel like when I dance.  A few nights ago I did a fundraiser for our local church school.  About 70 people came.  I said I would tap dance for them.  No one had ever seen me tap or perform dancing of any kind.  People asked me, "Are you ready?" and "Are you nervous?"  I was ready and not nervous.  I don't have fear when I dance.  My body just dances.  Billy Elliot called it "electricity" as in something flows through him.  All other life issues, thoughts and such just fade away.  Talk about "letting go."  You sort of surrender to the moment, the music, and you go.  Practice of course is important.  But practice will not make a dancer.  That comes from within and connects to all the muscles in the body.  You dance as One or you don't dance.  Divided, you just do exercises, and steps.  Swan Lake ballet is a perfect metaphor for Billy Elliot, a miner's son.  For most hours of the day, in the story, a girl is under a spell and she is a swan.  But for a few hours each day, she can be herself.  When Billy dances he is who he is supposed to be, though those around him try to keep him from being himself.  When I said I wanted to be a tap dancer at my "mature" age, people asked why.  They saw me only through their eyes and probably their needs.  But I saw me, as they could not.  So if dancing or whatever you think you want to do makes you one with yourself, and at ease within, then do it and stop being a swan.  I hope the church wants to do another fundraiser, because I have only just begun.  Pride? No.  Electric.