Hey, reader. How are you doing? At an event watching local Indigenous people dance, they were burning copal. I felt so happy, some things came together in my mind. I connected dots, and I felt excited. It made me want to write a blog post and tell you what dancing is for.
prayers
Dancing is to hold the world together. Yes, it can hold the world together like gravity / Jagaddhatri. Also it’s a way to pray our prayers.
Dancing is a way to create sense. I can take my life experiences and condense them into movement.
Also dance can be an art form, and a cultural transmission. We can dance in ways that have been handed down from previous generations. Or handed horizontally from friends, siblings, niblings, and cousins.
Dancing can be like stimming, a release. Often my dancing and stimming look the same.
Dancing can be a way to honor–a way to pay respect.
Dancing is pleasure, and dancing can be all of this at the same time. All of it.
transqueer fat disabled dance
We did the August transqueer fat disabled dance, and then the September one. I think of how important it is to co-create a space where all bodies belong.
Movement spaces are mostly for abled, thin, white people. When I show up to a gym, yoga studio, or any movement space, I feel scared. It’s not for me. If I’m able to participate, I’m afraid of stressing the instructor and annoying the other participants.
I much prefer the unconditional respect we create in the Transqueer Fat Disabled Dance. Our transgressive bodies are expected and wanted. Yes, I need that in my life. It’s healing. It’s part of what I’m here for.
sex
When I was a kid I thought dancing was for sex. It’s a flirtatious way people try out being embodied together before they do it.
That always bothered me. I like being an adult and seeing way more choices. Then creating more choices when I need them.
