Tuesday, March 16, 2010

I Adore Adoree

Over Christmas I did a little retreat meant to set your new year out on the right foot. It was no Madeline Blau workshop, but thinking about where you are going is always good.

That day we danced. One of our dances was with a woman named Adoree (or, as she is known on Pico Blvd., Dorie). I loved her, and after the workshop she appeared at my side and said, "You need to dance. It doesn't need to be with me, but you need to do that. You are a dancer."

So little time. But her words stuck with me, and at the end of February I signed up for a bellydancing class with her. I know little about her, except that she traveled the world bellydancing, and her stage name is Adoree.

She is so beautiful to watch that standing in the room with her and trying to emulate her I can feel her casting her spell on me. It is a trance, or a form of meditation. Sometimes my body follows. Sometimes it can't.

In an early class she promised us our bodies would open up with the dance, as we used muscles we had not used, and stretched areas we had not stretched, and our lives would begin to change.

I don't know about that. But I do know that when I come out of the class I feel refreshed, supple, smooth, slithery, grounded.

I have gotten superstitious about it. The dance sets my week off right. And when I fall asleep after class I hear the drums, and feel my body moving, still--like that feeling after you get off rollerskates but you are still rolling. That is a wonderful feeling.

Dance!

No comments: