Life is a Stage

Lights, camera, and oh yeah.......for a minute I forgot where I was. Isn't it amazing what a stage can do to you? I mean for most of us who have been dancing for years, we have had the pleasure and displeasure of dancing on a variety of dance floors in odd spaces. I've danced on grass, tables (don't recommend them) chairs (definitely don't recommend them) gooey floors (don't ask)and brick patios with little pebbles (my toes wouldn't speak to me for weeks). Carpet is great for carpet burn and sloping hills can really challenge your sense of equilibrium!!
Once we find ourselves on a "real" stage we have a sense of making it.
So imagine with me a black stage shaped like a diamond with white tape to show the diamond design with seats positioned at an angle on either side. Sounds pretty amazing and to tell you the truth it was..................
Veils floating in the air in a sunset orange and yellow filled the stage as my friend Rozana al Jinan and her students danced with rhythmic grace and elegance. As the rush of bodies came back into the dressing room a laughing Rozana said "Watch your point of reference because you might get lost."
"Oh no, another stage to contend with," I thought to myself. So off I went walking to my place on the stage where I was to start. The Music started and so good so far that was until I started to do a head spin....uh oh....where's the front from the back? Once I stopped I was facing the back wall and not the audience. Thank God for spontaneous choreography and the fact that I am an old veteran of the occasional blooper. This is what makes dance so enticing for us because it has to do with the moment and life doesn't always tell us what's around the corner or how we'll end up after we spin. As in life a stage can become something you never expected.

What is it that we want people to see and remember when we are on stage versus how we are in everyday life? Do we become a wonderwoman by performing and the average woman by day? As a dancer of many years I often wonder what happens to us when we believe too much in our wonderwoman persona. I have seen dancers forget that they are just "people". It's almost as if the stage seduces the senses and after a while of embracing the intoxicating allure of the lights, sound and applause dancers become the Hyde version of their Jekyll personas. Is the stage our friend I ask you? Sometimes I wonder because I have witnessed men and women lose their humility at the first sight of a stage. It's almost as if the only way they can prove their worth is by the stage. So is the stage a "fix" for some dancers?
What our dance means to us is expressed through our performances which just happens to be on stages. But how we express our dance when we aren't on stage is just as important, probably more so than ever. The stage is not my escape from reality but a way that I can express the reality in which I live.
So the diamond stage didn't really work out like I thought it would but sometimes life doesn't either. The difference is that my life isn't defined by the stage but defined by what I do on and off the stage. Maybe life is really one, gigantic stage and everywhere we go we perform our lives. I like this because than life becomes my "fix" and it's allure is having those around me that I love. So life for me is one big stage and whether I'm on a black stage shaped like a diamond or sitting in my living room, I know who I am.......sometimes but than each day is a new script and turning the page is the best part.