My New Dancing Passion
I have a new love. I have found a dance style that just makes my spirits soar.
As you all know dancing is my muse, my meditation. One Sunday morning I arrived in Fuxing Park right across the street from my Shanghai apartment and noticed a major commotion in one of the areas where I usually go to dance.
A large crowd had encircled something, something I couldn’t see because there were too many spectators. As I got closer I was hearing this joyful jubilant music, I couldn’t wait to see what was going on.
It was a group from Xinjiang. Twenty or so people in full ethnic costume were dancing and swaying. With Hugh smiles on their faces and sparkling eyes they flirted with each other acting out what seemed to be a courting ritual. I wanted so much to just jump into the middle of it all. By now I had slipped up to the front of the crowd and was swaying with the music when one of the dancers spied me mimicking their gestures. Much to my delight he grabbed me and insisted that I join them. Within minutes I was a full participant fully costumed as one after another gave me first their hat then belt and then full-length coat. It was so easy to lose myself in the rhythmic, happy exuberant music. I was seriously hooked. And I haven’t missed a chance to join in since, both in Sanya and Shanghai.
In fact, I have been specifically invited to join a professional Xinjiang Dance Troop in Shanghai. I attend their rehearsal and practice sessions and have performed several times already with them.
More on the rehearsal and dance routines — the leader of the group and the instructor picked up quickly that I wasn’t her normal type student. She immediately let me improvise. As the group was learning their patterned routines, she let me mimic and freelance. When we identified a particularly agile partner for me, she and I would move in and around their patterned routines.
On one particular occasion my spontaneity created an entire routine for their performances. It all began as playful banter between me and one of the other guys as we vied for the attention of the same lady. I did mention didn’t I that this dancing is very flirtatious? Well anyway this initial clowning at one of the practices is now a regular performance piece when I am involved.
Photos of my Xinjiang Joy.
