Monday, October 30, 2006

Shall we dance?

I feel like dancing. Damn, I need to dance - the craving is killing me.
I haven't had much training in dance. I did Manipuri Nritya, Rabindra Nritya and Indian folk dance for five years while I was in school, but truth be told, I don't think I particulary enjoyed it except for the folk dance. Now that was fun. But for the most part it was what every kid does - some learn singing, some painting, and some dancing. I was of the last kind. I'm a competent dancer in these forms - or at least I used to be; I suddenly realise that it's been seven years since I gave it up - but I never showed any particular talent or flair.
Towards the end of my school years, I did a bit of what goes as 'choreography' in high school parlance, which was all right, I guess - not spectacularly exciting, but fun nonetheless. 'Twas painstaking, though, because I find it fiendishly difficult to remember the sequence in a choreographed dance. It was somewhat easier with the Indian dancing, because the steps changed according to the lyrics or the taal, but when you're dancing to Enrique shrieking 'All I neeeeeeeeeeeed is a rhythm divine,' it's bloody hard to remember that you're doing splits the third time he's howling that out and leaps the fourth time, and not the other way around. But like I've said, it was still fun. Even though I had to dance to Britney Spears once because everybody else on the team thought that it was a great idea. Shudder.
But since leaving school, there's been no regular dancing for me. No practise, no rehearsals. I miss that. Not the griminess and sweatiness of thrice weekly four hour rehearsals after school in faraway places, but the exhilaration. The exhaustion, the adrenaline rush.
I dance, these days, whenever I can. At pubs, at home, at university, at parties. If I'm in the mood, and I hear music, it sets my foot tapping, and it is as if I have to move. A compulsion. To spin and sway and go completely crazy. I'll dance to 'Hips Don't Lie', to 'Sway', to 'Kajra re', to 'Stella by Starlight' - give me a tune, and a beat, and I'll dance. And dancing gives me the cleanest and purest highs that I've ever had. It's liberating, and one of the very few things that I do without any inhibitions whatsoever. Which is one of the reasons that I am terribly attracted to ballroom dances, especially the Latin ones. That mixture of complete control and total abandon - it fascinates me. Another reason is of course the fact that these are partnered dances. Call me crazy but I feel a distinct partiality for partnered dances. It's always more fun to be dancing as a couple than alone, or in a big group. I'm not very picky about who I'm dancing with, as long as they're not gropey, or otherwise completely obnoxious, but I have to be dancing with somebody. It's more enjoyable that way - not in a sexual way, because I enjoy dancing with women almost as much as I do with men - the idea that the two people are, in part at least, creating their own fun together. There's an intimacy there that I like. A spark, sometimes. There's an adverse side to this of course, as I have discovered and been edified about - people do tend to assume that hopping onto the dance floor is a prelude to hopping into bed. And this is one of the things that I really hate about this blessed city - where I cannot just ask people to take me dancing because the implications are manifold. Urgh.
I've been meaning to learn ballroom dancing for aaages, but it hasn't happened yet. And I really really want to. Sigh.
This is a strange post at a strange time, especially since I have work, work, and MORE work, but I watched a dance movie today, and it went straight to my head, and the urge to dance is strong tonight. And I can't, because my foot won't allow me to. I've tried. I'm feeling most sad.
After my foot heals, someone take me dancing SOON. Else I will DIE.