When I was younger there was a dance place to go to every night of the week, except Friday, there wasn’t a good place on Friday nights. I don’t remember why, but I do remember that every other night of the week there was a place to go. And we would go, every night, except Fridays. Specifically on Sundays – dollar drink night – it wasn’t a case of calling people up and making plans to GO. The only reason you would call someone about it was if you WEREN’T going, otherwise it was just assumed you would be there. There was a small group of us that would meet up. The other nights of the week, we would usually need to make plans, but the atmospheres of the places we went to were ones that you could show up by yourself and be fine. It was easy to dance, drink, mix, and mingle with people until the core group showed up. It was pretty much always the same people at the same places so even if you weren’t friends outside you were friends inside and it was fun. But even though that were the case there was still that fear of getting up on the dance floor and dancing. That fear that people were watching you, judging you, or whatever that fear is about. One time we were out one of my friends solved that problem for me for life, he said something like, “Yeah, they are all watching – not because there is something wrong or they are making fun of us, but they are watching because they want to be us! They are watching because we are so awesome.” And from that moment on, I didn’t care who was watching.
This life changing statement/attitude is a great thing to have when dancing Nia. It really allows you to realize that dancing is not about the people who are not on the dance floor, it is about you and your body. It helps make it easy to just forget about the people who may or may not be watching and really move your body.
I just don’t agree with this thing/saying, the one that says to do all these things as if no one is watching or hearing or as if you’ve never lived before. But . . . I get the basic sentiment, I just don’t agree.
Dance like everyone is watching, but don’t worry about them – who cares? Dance anyway.
Love as though you have learned how to love and make it wonderful – Every. Single. Time.
Sing as though the whole world can hear you and STILL wants to listen.
Live in a way that makes you happy.
That is what I say . . . . today anyway.
How do you feel about the saying?
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