Dancing and dancing and dancing and dancing..and dancing

Today I attended a dance competition in which I sat in a high school gymnasium and watched little girls compete in dances comprised of  groups, duets and single dancers.  I watched hundreds of little dancers tap, twist and thrust, some of which were cute, funny, amazing, forgot their part, and oh my goodness I did not know that the human body could do that feelings were going through my head.  

It made me think on how a simple dance can make you feel; angry, in love, sexy, polluted, joyous, simple, young, old, etc.  Some of these girls would really get into the dance showing absolute enthusiasm and joy as they floated across the gym floor, and some looked as if every move was painful to get through and they were not sure what or why they were doing this dance but then you looked over to the side to see their mothers living through their child giving them subtle reminders of the next move and telling them to remember to keep a smile on their face.  

There was a beautiful little girl who was in quite a few dances and it made me think of the countless hours she must spend dancing, how much she must practice every move to perfection, and all of her many costumes that have been sewn and altered on her behalf and the money that had to have been spent in order for her to look and be amazing to reach the big trophies and to be named the "dancing queen". 

 This also made me think of a day many months ago that I attended a small dance class with my niece Brecken , I believe it was her second class and she was still getting used to following directions.  Brecken loved her pretty little tutu that she got to wear and swooshed it back and forth as she twisted her hips.  The dance teacher was teaching the class a dance and you could see these darling 3 and 4 year old children trying their best to follow this sweet and patient teacher.... well all of them were following her except Brecken.  Brecken was in her spot with bright eyes and a look of wonderment choreographing her own dance of leaps, rolls and silly faces that looked nothing like what the class was doing, and doing it like no one was watching,  but loving every minute of it.  It made me think that if we could only dance like no one was watching or no one cared what would our dance be like?