“Tall and straight my mother taught me.
This is how we dance.
Tall and straight my father taught me.
This is how we dance.
—Riverdance
Battering feet on the city street, in pools of light on street corners.
Heel against floor and wave upon shore.
Heartbeat of the world.”
Ghana
There is one from of theatre that you cannot beat in Ghana, and it comes with one simple
word. Dance. In other words, I found out that if you don’t dance, you’re practically not alive.
The least you can do is move. I went to a Palm Sunday service for a SAS trip, and the entire
church was practically up in the front dancing. They whirled their palms in the air as if they were
trees swaying in the wind themselves. I happily joined them at the front (and hey, can I just say it
was the funnest church service ever?). Everywhere I went I found people moving. They could
express themselves beautifully, even if it was by twirling a plastic chair above their head in excitement to welcome me. At one point, I was with some fellow students helping build a school,
and the entire community was singing and drumming and dancing and clapping their hands as
we got off the bus to help them. I learn that people of this country put action to their words. It’s
something that I’ll never forget, and take home
with me. It is their way of saying “thank you”. I
talked with the locals and I fun exchanged stories with them. All I know for sure, is that I will
be back to continue my storytelling.
Welcome to my world of dance. Here’s I’ll be posting inspirations about one of my greatest passions: the power of dance.
View a piece my sisters and I choreographed and performed at the Celtic Irish Dance Festival in Disneyland, Paris:
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