SATURNALIA: Dressing for the dance floor

By: Kim Philley

21-11-2011

Kim

SATURNALIA: Dressing for the dance floor

Drink and dance and laugh and lie,

Love the reeling midnight through,

For tomorrow we shall die!

(But, alas, we never do.)

—Dorothy Parker, from Death and Taxes

We all have a place that holds us to the fire, whether we call it our hometown, holidays at our in-laws’ house, or a workplace where we are in over our heads. Whatever the GPS coordinates of our Waterloos may be, our battlefields have this in common: a constricting, strict Saturnian energy. These are places where we rarely get what we want. Instead, each time we visit them, we’re hammered by defeat.

Boise has been this place for me. After a break-up, a job loss, or the kamikaze free-fall of a functional degree of health, this is where I end up. But in not giving it up so easily, this town has taught me a necessary lesson: to stop asking what I want out of life and to start figuring out what life wants from me.

Sometimes the cues are subtle. Other times, getting what I need feels a lot like being dragged behind a bulldozer. It takes time, discernment, and synchronicity to find one’s stream in life. It takes faith to jump back in. When the dog bites, when the bee stings, when I’m feeling sad—I get my ass to dance class.

Today I stumbled through a ludicrously up-tempo Zumba class at the downtown Y. Because life’s hard and I believe a well-cut profile on the dance floor can warm even the bleakest heart, here’s my ode to dance halls, dance class, and the spirit that revels despite it all.

Happy Holidays. Xo K