#575: There Is A Ritual To It

The dance floor is open, she says,
and people begin dancing.
Sometimes, she doesn’t have to
say anything. From the first
downbeat people leave their seats
and flock. They don’t even have
to be sure that the music
is good. It starts, they begin,
as if they could not help it.

They are exercising, they are
entertaining themselves, they
are having fun, as they say.
But there is a ritual to it.
This is not art or religion,
but nevertheless transcendent.

Despite my musicianship,
I used to think that dancing
was a stupid human act.
I was in my thirties when
I started to think differently,
when I did what Billy Idol
sang and I danced with myself
in a public space without
self consciousness.

There is a ritual to it,
a kind of silly solemnity,
an abandonment, and,
if one is not showing off,
a way to disappear, to give
oneself up completely
to the music.



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