Dancing With a Stranger
Embracing Imperfection
I can’t dance to save my life and I have come to terms with that.
However, this doesn’t stop me from moving my body to the direction of the tune of a song. It doesn’t stop me from simultaneously putting two fingers up when the song gets to a climax like I actually know what I’m doing. It doesn’t stop me from loosing myself in a group dance with my favs even when I know I look ridiculous.
My body’s partial deafness to the melody of a song doesn’t render it paralysed. It just clothes it with a kind of awkwardness my mind can handle.
Dancing is a kind of art that requires your entirety. It cannot be done partially. It is either done completely or not done at all. No in-betweens.
Laughing is like dancing, only with a sound. We are never taught how to laugh. The sudden outburst of a strange sound from our vocal cords must have shocked us when we had our first shot at responding to humor. The lightness in our abdomen must have felt like heaven.
On a lot of days I miss my laughter and how it gives no warning before throwing me to the floor with my legs flapping and my palms on my abdomen. I miss how the tightening in my chest vanishes after a dosage of loud, deep and sincere laughter. I miss how nothing matters in that moment.
My best version of laughter is one that holds my tongue and steals my ability to produce coherent speech. The kind that makes no room for explanation. The kind that travels from my mouth to another’s, erupting into a symphony.
I used to think Music was my forte till I got to the university and my voice shrunk in the multitude of vocal prowess. The pitch I gloried in was a shadow of the perfection I erroneously thought I had mastered.
However, like dancing, I have come to terms with that and this garment of awkwardness has become my uniform. On days when the cold hands of life’s uncertainty threatens to freeze me to death, this garment keeps me warm. It protects me.
When life is too heavy, I can turn off my phone and pretend I’m in a concert, singing like Beyonce and dancing with a stranger.
