We are, from time to time, compelled to post on subjects other than travel, like our nifty Steampunk Dining room, and the awesomeness of arena rock concerts. This is one of those posts but, I will circuitously connect dance to our exotic family travel shtick.
Our love of dance.
My wife danced semi-pro in her San Fransisco youth, but a near-death car accident and resulting spinal surgery put and end to her dance days. Twenty years later, we find our daughters have the same enthusiasm for performance as their mother. They love dance, ballet and gymnastics.
Neither Emma nor Lily are the precocious, over-programmed types, but we do encourage them to dance. At the bottom of the post are a few ballet recitals, mostly for the enjoyment of our relatives. (David doesn’t dance much really, but was once spotted shirtless, in pink tights, performing in front of cheering drunk frenchmen. True story.)
Turning back time.
The joy in this story is Trisha’s 20 year journey back to serious dance performance. She always took and liked dance classes, but last spring she danced as a member of a community group that performed an original piece. As you’ll see from the video, it was a muscular dance and it took a lot of practice. For Trish, it was a huge achievement to be back on stage after the car accident, spinal rods, two kids, one c-section, cancer and restorative abdominal muscle surgery.
All but one of the dancers in the group were semi-pro, twenty-somethings, and Trish was the oldest. But you wouldn’t know from the performance. She turned back time. (Almost anyway. The young girls probably went right back to dancing the next day, and Trish couldn’t move for 36 hours.)
We travel to cheat time.
Our commitment to adventure comes from our near-death experiences, and the desire to live life more intentionally. Emma mused in Sharm el-sheikh that travelling slows time down, making us live longer. NPR just did a story about why time seems to go faster as you get older. The tip, it seems, is to do as many new things as you can, because we perceive new things as happening more slowly. There’s no easier way to do that than travelling.
Here’s a couple of videos from last year’s ballet recitals. Neither girl found deep love with the rigidity of Ballet, but both still perform. Lily is taking a hip-hop class at joy of Motion and Emma is doing gymnastics.
Kid Ballet stuff