The Music

>> TUESDAY, MARCH 16, 2010

Today we had something of a forum with Matt, our percussionist for jazz class.  I have been talking and thinking a lot about the music.  I can feel the rhythm in my body and consider it to be part of me.  I cannot really verbalize it, which is unusual for me.  I usually don't understand something until I can say it.  I don't mean repeat it, I mean really say it.  Sometimes I tutor topics such as physics or math, and any success I have in doing this is due to my ability to break stuff down verbally.  I also draw pictures, but I digress.  I am wondering if being able to verbalize the pieces of the music that I can feel will help with the movements in class.

Choreography has proved difficult for me for as long as I can remember.  I finally found something that requires some structure and a lot of rhythm: Lindy Hop.  Lindy Hop is a jazz era dance, so naturally there are a lot of jazz elements in the structure of it.  When I come to jazz class and we start counting and doing the steps, I feel my body change.  I lose the music.  It isn't even a factor in my body, only in my head.  I get frustrated because I don't feel myself dancing to it, I am only concerned about what the steps are.  Even more frustrating is that I am not concerned about the next step, I don't even know what the current one is.

The music helps me come back into my body.  Acknowledging the music in class today gives me hope that I will one day be able to find the words to tell my body what to do and let the music guide when to do it.  I find this come naturally with movements I already feel.  I also need to learn the way that I learn, and hope that somehow this fits into the class.