I love, not like, love the show So You Think You Can Dance. It’s the reality talent contest I look anxiously forward to every week because the contestants are ridiculous—ree-dik-you-luss—talented. I wish I could do any of that. It speaks to the part of me that loves all old time musicals and Fred Astaire movies, and the newer variants like Moulin Rouge (I have a tiny crush on Ewan McGregor) and Glee. Even the judges on SYTYCD, though they could easily cut their florid babbling critiques by half, have grown on me. Mary Murphy has burrowed a way into my heart despite, or because of, her botox drunk mouth screaming her piercing approval. She reminds me of a crazy old lady from church who everybody suspects has been sipping the communion wine in the narthex. Somehow that makes me feel affection.
Although the banging hip hop numbers are my usual faves, once in a while I am really moved by the serious work of one of those kooky choreographers. Last season, I cried when dancers, Kupono and Kayla, were asked to depict a girl’s addiction to drugs by that freakshow known as Mia Michaels. Having, in my misspent youth, been oppressed by the crushing effects of a brief but paralyzing addiction, I thought the choreographer really caught that truth and made her dancers share it. Last night, for the first time this season, I got the chills watching a depiction of a woman’s struggle with her fears. In the middle of the dance, I had to make sure it was being recorded. Why? Because it was true. There are a slew of woman out there who would be moved to know that their wrestling match with fear is not an anonymous struggle—alone and in the dark.
What is it about our race of sisters and the fear that wants to crush our hopes and dreams? Panic attacks wait outside the door of a PTA meeting. Dark clad, “What if I fail my children in some way?” hides in our closet while the monster of marital distress lurks under the bed. Our legs are gnawed by the triple-headed demon dog Cerebrus aka Am I Working Too Much and Neglecting My Family? Am I Working Enough, Ensuring My Independence and Strength?? What Is It All For anyway??? The list of fears that finds us and haunts us is endless to the point of minutiae, “Is my house clean enough?”, “Is my butt too big?”, “Do I have cankles?” “Didn’t I used to be smart?”...to the enormously plaintive, ”THIS IS NOT WHAT I THOUGHT MY LIFE WOULD BE.”
Please allow me to let Stacey Tookey and her dancers speak the words more eloquently than I can write them (don't let the introduction throw you off- wait for the dance, it's worth it...and feel free to stop watching after the dance is over because these judges like to tawk)
"But Perfect Love drives out all fear." St. John
boom
ReplyDeletehey, what is the point of this blogspot?
ReplyDeleteBoom is right....see it, hear it, feel it, know it, LIVE IT!
ReplyDelete