Movement is Life

There are no longer “dancers,” the possessed. The cleavage of men into actors and spectators is the central fact of our time. We are obsessed with heroes who live for us and whom we punish... We have metamorphised from a mad body dancing on hillsides to a pair of eyes staring in the dark.

— Jim Morrison

THE ART OF DANCE

Movement is life.

All life arises from movement

The movement of atoms and molecules and cells

When movement stops, life stops.

Dance is movement

Movement is life

Dance is life.

As all living things breathe, all living things dance.

Dance is the harmonious expression of life.

It is energy expended; it is the first source of harmony in the world.

The proper expression of life consists of moving in harmony with the world.

To move in harmony with the world, with other people, with the things of the world, with ourselves; this is ultimate expression of dance.

All living things wish to move well; it is built into them to wish it, for living things that move well are better fit to survive than those which do not.

The harmonious expression of life, sometimes vigorous, sometimes gentle, is the surface of dance.

It is a celebration and an affirmation.

In every movement it describe ourselves to the world, with every glance, every step, every gesture, it betrays ourselves to all those with eyes to see.

A dancer must be aware of all that they do, all of the time; and why.

Movement cannot be done with only part of their attention, because everything depends on how a movement is made.

The quality of a motion is directly related to this ability to be aware; to be completely alive in the moment of motion.

The human body is designed and made to dance.

All creatures dance, for movement comes before speech, before thought; the first communication any creature learns is the communication of movement.

Before people spoke, they danced.

A dance cannot lie.

It is what it is.

Only words can lie, can represent that which is not.

A dance is.

It can only represent that which is.

Language is a lie.

It is what it is not.

Dance is.

Dance is honest.

It is an understanding of gravity, and an understanding of balance.

An understanding of center, of posture and of gesture.

An understanding of rhythm, and harmony.

An understanding of breath.

An understanding of motion.

But these are merely tools, and all of them, together, do not make dance.

Life is movement

The expression of life is the surface of dance

Those who are most alive are those who dance well.

Those who are most honest are those who dance well.

Few understand this.

Some have wondered if dancing matters.

If it is not ‘just dancing.’

And yet the finest thing you can do is dance.

The greatest of expression is dance.

Everything else—everything you have ever been exposed to—is another art.

Art of passion, art of pain, art of joy and art of faith.

Art of death.

But there is only one art of life.

And that art is the Dance.

Excerpted and paraphrased from the novel The Last Dancer By Daniel Keys Moran