The Dance of Change

Change has never been my strong suit.  Yet over the past year, my life has seemed to be inundated with continuous change.  I'm referring to the kind of change that takes a toll on your mental, emotional and physical well-being, or lack thereof.  I have often felt like a trapeze artist shifting constantly from one bar to another performing a series of balances, drops, and hangs.  Sometimes there have been too many strenuous changes at once which felt like performing double or triple swinging and flying acts.  In those times, I seem to always loose my footing.  I retreate into a solo performance.

With a love for dancing, I do have a reasonable level of strength, and pride myself on the ability to manage the static trapeze.  However, this requires no reliance on other performers and results in no real growth in my artistry.  I simply perform solo moves around a bar and rope, performing my own movements while the bar itself stays in place.  I become fixated on making every move look effortless while the skilled trapeze performer learns to surrender fluidly to all stages of life – static, swinging, flying, double, or multiple trapeze.  She transitions from one apparatus to another with style and grace.

Life is a dance.  I have never worked at a circus, but I do love to dance!  There are many types of dances and many different types of dance partners.  Some dances are slow, some fast, some easy to learn, and others beyond my mind and body coordination.  Then there are the dances I love the most; the many forms of ballroom dancing which require a dance partner.  These include dances such as Swing, Tango, Salsa, Merengue, and many others. 

I recall taking a ballroom dance class many years ago.  I have always been a pretty good dancer.  My classmates would call me Cinderella.  They said my shoes were always sparkly and while I had a quiet demeanor, I would go from bashful to mastering complex routines and gliding elegantly across the floor.  But to gain this experience, it required practice and dancing with many different partners to diverse music. The male dance instructor would line the men and women up facing each other.  Practice music would be played and after every 30 second segment with a partner, he would say to the women – “change partners”.

Each time I changed, it felt awkward.  I had to relearn my comfort zone and trust his lead.  Each time I changed, I found no two partners were the same.  The more I changed, I found joy as I wondered with excitement what the next dance would be like.  I didn’t always like my partners and found some of their leading confusing and unstable.  In these times, I learned to rely on my own core and strength for balance so that I could continue to grow and master advanced moves such as double and triple turns. 

Dance requires the mastery of change.  Each time the beat changes, I must adjust my rhythm.  Each time the partner changes, I must have faith in my instincts.  There will be many dances over the course of my life.  Though uncomfortable, the Dance Trapeze is a form of dance which I too much learn – knowing that at first I might fall off.  I have learned to step and turn – now I must also learn to swing, fly, and flip through various acts.  When life says “change”, I will approach it with excitement for the adventure ahead.  At first I will feel awkward and uncomfortable.  I will then trust and learn to rely on others.  Confidence in my ability to adapt will emerge regardless of how far the jump.  With precision, I will transition with style and grace.  

Grace