Wednesday, March 25, 2015

Dancing Through Life

My university brought in another guest artist and we had a master class this evening (I promise we don't have them every week). This artist was also a mostly contemporary performer and choreographer, so that's what today's class was. I learned two important lessons from this woman.


1: "You have these still spaces - why wouldn't you dance through them?"

She gave us a few combinations that all had little pauses in them. She told us not to be stagnant in those moments, but to dance through them and connect all of movements. This is so relevant to real life, too. We at times have these "still spaces," where we may feel like we're not really doing anything, or we aren't sure what we should be doing. We should dance through them. Find something small to do. It will be of worth. The "glue" in a dance that takes you from one movement to another is what makes the dance good. Our "little" tasks in between great feats are what will make us as people.


2: "Life is short but the van ride is long."

When the guest artist said this, she was answering a question about what she looks for in an audition. She said a big thing is being nice. Life's too short to deal with mean people. The company travels a lot, and you're all stuck in a van together. She said she didn't want to be in a van with mean people, because the van ride is long.

This life is short. We don't have time to deal with people being mean to us. So what do we do? Show charity to them, and to ourselves. Show charity to them: do not use harsh words at your enemies. "Revenge is not the Lord's way." Show charity towards yourself: love yourself enough to get away from harmful people. Sometimes, we just won't be able to reconcile with some people. We're all imperfect, and sometimes our imperfections just hit at each other and we can't fix things in the present. If you're in a situation where someone is hurting you and you can't fix it right now, get out. You can still show charity towards someone without having them be an active part of your life.


Life is hard. Not because we're doing it wrong, but just because it's hard. Have faith and press forward. Know that this life is not all we have. When hard times come, know that "there must be an opposition in all things," and that "all things have been done in the wisdom of Him who knoweth all things" (2 Nephi 2, verses 11 and 25). When all else fails, dance it out. When life gives you still spaces, dance through.

Prayers for peace and joy to you reading <3

No comments:

Post a Comment