And then…she let the pictures tell the story
The last dance of the summer season in Cannon Beach on Saturday, September 26 was perfect. It’s taken me a week to write about it partly because the effect it’s had on me has been a profound one. I hope to capture and share with you in a few words what I mean by profound and then I’m just going to let the photographs I took with a friend’s camera (Thank you, Joe!) tell you the rest of the story. In truth, there were many stories being danced that day, but here is the one that danced through me.
It is a simple story and yet it might possibly be the greatest story I’ll ever tell. The writer, Nora Ephron once said (and it’s memorialized by Billy Crystal in the movie “When Harry Met Sally”), “When you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible.” I felt that way a few months after I met my husband, James and I feel this way about Beach Dance. What I saw happening around me during the event and what I heard from the participants after the dance concluded, confirmed once again how much this kind of experience is wanted and needed in our world right now.
What takes place inside of others as they move their bodies to the music is a mystery to me, but I do know this…whenever we experience the feeling of being free, we are powerful beyond anything we can imagine. When I invite people to share their thoughts after a Beach Dance, “I feel free” is far and above the sentiment I hear most often. What more could I, as the facilitator, want to create for people more than the opportunity to feel free? At the moment, I can’t think of anything. Yes, I want them to experience the delight and fun of dancing out and about in nature with others, but when the music ceases and the group gathers again just before the event ends, I want them to experience their own sense of freedom.
To feel and to be happy and free…I think that’s something we can all agree we want for each other. The rest of my life has begun. I want to spend the rest of my life sharing the experience of Beach Dance with others. And that’s my story.
Thank you to all the participants of Saturday’s event for sharing your dance with me. Without you, I wouldn’t have had the chance to see this…
Playlist for Saturday, September 26
Roll Your Own ~ Tripswitch
Mi Confesion ~ Gotan Project
Free Tibet ~ Hilight Tribe
Amma ~ James Asher & Sivamani
Ice Beach ~ Arcane & Niklas Harding
Dance ~ The Lovemakers
Shake Your Groove Thing ~ Peaches & Herb
Get in the Groove ~ The Mighty Hannibal
I Just Want to Celebrate ~ Rare Earth
We’re All in the Dance ~ Feist
You and Me ~ Lifehouse
It All Comes Down to the Love ~ The Candlepark Stars
Winter Morning ~ Startle the Heavens
This entry was posted on Monday, October 5th, 2009 at 12:25 pm, filed under Beach Dance Events, The Dancing Voice, and is tagged as Beach Dance, Cannon Beach, ecstatic dance, playlist. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.