Dancing from the soul

A comment from a blog follower:

I understand how people can take levels one and two and say "that's enough"
Dancing reveals so much of yourself. As you get higher and higher in levels you
have to be ready to open up to accept self expression in a true art form.In
social dancing or lower levels you can get by with saying oh it's just fitness
or it's just for fun, but as things get tougher and when it's time to bare your
soul, not all people will be ready for that.

I never really thought about this before. For me, I've danced all my life. Since I was 5 yrs old, I've been in ballet, jazz, tap, etc. When I hit college, I learned to two-step at the local country bar. In the summer before graduating I took up ballet again and it just wasn't the same. My mind could perform more advanced moves, but my body wasn't up to par anymore. Heart and soul just wasn't in it and being frustrated wasn't what I was hoping for.

Enter belly dancing. Fun for a while, but not my thing. I got a good workout and even bought the little skirt with bells on it. (Can't take belly dancing without making fun noise with your hips!) Shortly after that, a few of my friends and I took up pole dancing because it was offered, we were bored college kids, and thought it would be fun. It was! (Sadly I'm the only one out of 5 that continued on.) It has become a big part of my life. I took 1 level and fell in love with it. I could put my feelings through the music and make my body explore them through movement. Pole has given me the release to let out any emotion I may be feeling, just by dancing. It's not all about being sexy. It's much more than that.

Going back to the quote (I know, took a while to get here, sorry for the history lesson) I guess I just haven't ever seen dance as strictly fitness. I suppose many people join a level 1 and 2 class for the fitness part of it, and then once it becomes 'dance' they bail. It's a great workout, don't get me wrong, there's just so much more to it than that, for me anyways. I couldn't imagine just taking a pole class like you would a bootcamp class, or a step class. To me it's got more emotional ties to it and that makes it more meaningful. Not everyone is a emotional as me, and not everyone has that feeling that dance is from your soul. Some people just see it as a way to get fit.

There are few ways in this world you can bare your soul and reveal an art. Dance has been around through all the ages in one form or another.