"So... What's Your Backup Plan?"
I can still remember the day my father turned to me in the car and asked me that question.
"You're body is not going to be young forever. I mean, look at me! My knees are shot. Eventually, you'll have to stop dancing. What are you going to do then?"
Let me address this head on...
Golden Years
First and foremost, my dance mentor is 68 years old and can out do me in all things dance, so being old is not the problem. Yet, I can feel the dancers in the room tense up when someone mentions getting old. We don't dread the idea of being old. We dread the idea of not dancing.
And rightfully so! Dance is a beautiful art that reminds us that we were built to be in motion. It makes us feel as though our bodies are perfectly crafted for the first time in our lives. It speaks from one heart to the next using the eyes as its pathway.
The problem is we made dance self-sufficient when it was never intended to be.
Purpose
I use dance for a purpose. I use it to educate, to motivate, to find identity, to heal. To penetrate the walls of the artist and find the person deeper inside. That purpose drives me more than dancing because life is so much bigger than dance! In fact, life is the context - the backdrop- that makes dance so beautiful.
Live In Motion,
-Joél Casanova