Coming down from a high – undoubtedly combining sleep deprivation with joyful, wild abandon … slowly coming down, although I’m having trouble convincing myself to do actual sleeping to fix the sleep debt.
I knew this already, but nothing beats the joys of dancing to live music. Even if the life of a musician is tough, I sure am glad there are some willing to tough it out and keep the tradition alive. And by alive, I mean “those kids are super young to be playing such hot vintage music”.
I am a little upset that dancers get a little shafted in terms of music appreciation (well, probably just taking things unnecessarily personally) – but it is understandable, sometimes I do understand that we may not appear to be the most appreciative of audiences – we’re about as far away from “sit down and listen” as you can get. But I think there’s a place for music that drives you to dance until you’re breathless, and that as an audience we’re no different from the sitdown types – there will always be the whole range of audience members, from those who follow and recognise minutiae, to those who are “just here to enjoy it”, those who don’t understand it at all.
After all, I was just in a restaurant with a big band…and I wasn’t sure how I felt about the jazz. How is tasting the notes by sitting and listening any different than taking that and living it with your body? How is it better – I remember thinking about the music, tasting it with my ears…but it feels a little hollow compared to actually getting up and taking the music for a spin. Dancing lets you hear and react to the music, both alone and through your partner – there are definitely times I react to the music in surprise and delight. Particularly the element of interacting with your partner – even without speaking, you have the reactions and responses of another person – sometimes agreeing, sometimes showing you an awesome little bit you missed, and sometimes you build off each other and discover a part of the music that you’d have never found alone. Of course, that makes the experience doubly weird when I’m by myself…but then, I often just ask myself the simple question – does this make me want to swing out. Then again, maybe it’s better to not have awesome happy swingout music when you’re alone…There is, after all, a place for music that makes you want to rest.
Alright – now I’m asleep!
