Performing tonight! Yes, all the months of rehearsing and training and planning lead up to this and then poof! It's over. Such is the existence for the performing artist.
One thing that draws me again and again to this exhausting, sometimes surreal and often magical experience is how dance performance heightens everything, making it glow: adrenaline, energy, emotion, possibility, teamwork, inspiration. Living on the edge, but in a creative way.
With all of the jitters and last minute issues and fatigue (and sometimes even peaking too soon) it's critical for me to focus. What am I doing and why? I'm dancing my heart out, remembering all who've supported me and those who can no longer dance, or never had the opportunity. Hoping to pave the way for those to follow.
And why? Because dancing brings me tremendous joy, healthfulness, challenge, inspiration, beauty, camaraderie, fulfillment and, yes, moments of transcendence. It's been my salvation and it's my prayer.
Also, those hardworking, committed, talented and beautiful dancers out there dancing with me deserve no less.
For those reasons and more, I will be giving the dance everything I've got. Full throttle. Especially in the face of all the world's troubles, it is really and truly, as Robert Battle says, a privilege to be dancing.
