Serenade for String Orchestra in C Major

Piotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky, recorded by the Australian Chamber Orchestra. 

My love returned home in between jobs, and I was excited to share my delight in the new dance studio.

We each were centred on our own axes, and used the language of Dance Together to express the rhythm. We moved strongly for three of four bars of the phrase, which then dropped precipitously, but we were ever on our axes, dissipating the momentum through a free leg, or allowing the embrace to flow without affecting our balance.

We felt through new techniques learned from our improvisation teachers, recognising understandings for the first time. We had a new trust in each other, and a new freedom from judgment in ourselves. I experienced a lack of desire to please at my own expense. We occasionally fell into the tight precision of step and pivot, but it was an uncomfortable situation for my body on the polished concrete floor. It engaged me in the painful push-me-pull-you twisting pattern I've spent the last two years healing.

So I stopped allowing it. I released my shoulders to walk out of the lead, gently turning around my shoulder joint (free of crunch adhesions for the first time, ever) and his axis to absorb the pivot meant for my supporting leg. But in time with the music, and when I found the new direction - how wonderful it is to have a large space to dance! - led my beloved to walk into a direction I could see, behind him or to the sides of me.

Knowing what I knew about the feelings of pivoting on this floor, I led him to walk around his legs, rather than twist on them. This allowed us to relax, dance without pain or strain, and so to smoothly swing our hips, move through our embrace, throwing and catching the lead with the elasticity of our frame.

And all of a sudden, our energy brought us precisely still, sharing a tight embrace from our chests to our pelvises, connecting in an agreement to continue on with our mornings. Grateful for the magical connection, in our magical space, at this magical time of our lives.  

Casting our dancing spell, realising what we have created through our focus and attention.

We tried to record a video of this (magical) dance, but realised once we finished our dance that the phone hadn't recorded.  I didn't care. The dance existed. The connection was fact. The realisation was real. The joy is tangible.