“I feel kinda free. We’re still the kids we used to be…”
Kanye West – Ghost Town (feat. Kid Cudi & 070 Shake)

Simply put: dancing is therapeutic.

I’m not an expert in science, but I know enough to realize that all of the energy in my body needs a conduit for kinesis. For the past year and change, dancing has been that conduit for me. For every moment I’ve been paralyzed with fear/anxiety, there are two moments where taking over the dance floor got me out of my head. For every day I laid on my couch in front of my TV crippled with depression, there are weeks where I was able to let dance help me understand my emotions. In such a short time, I’ve learned to use dancing as a tool for self-care after many years of casting that side of me by the wayside.

Simply put: dancing is a way to make up for lost time.

If I have any life regrets, it would be that I wish I stuck with ballet when I was in elementary school. I don’t remember everything I learned during class, but at least I do remember enjoying stepping and pivoting. Yet all of the work and play I put into it was seemingly for naught since a cold sidelined me from the end of year recital. I wouldn’t get the chance to do a ballet class ever again, partly because I was hindered by parasitic insecurity of being a Black boy wanting to pursue an art form that society deemed “girly” (and white). As I pursued musical theater as a teenager, my care for societal norms decreased while these regrets started to increase.

Simply put: dancing gets me more in touch with the music.

I’m a musician first and foremost. Dancing has allowed me to work with the music I hear on the floor and sync my body to it. From the syncopations to the swings, my vision has gotten better. I’m able to hear more within a song, move more efficiently. And when I go back to singing, it’s hard not to pulsate and move.

Simply put: dancing alleviates the pain.

June 2018 has not been kind to me at all, nor has it been kind to the lot of us. It’s quite difficult to find the words to describe my pain for this post. But thank God dance helps me, all of us, alleviate whatever pain we’re going through. The ability to move our body to rhythms; there’s nothing like that feeling. Throughout this whole month, I wished that I was able to put my emotions into words. Now I find myself grateful that I’m able to channel them into dancing…