International Dance Day

Margie Gillis

As far back as I can remember I wanted to be a ballerina. My mother would take me to the ballet and I idolized an older girl Sandra Miring who took ballet and was our next door neighbour in Toronto.

I would imagine myself being a dancer in a ballet, as I got all ethereal in our living room with flailing arms, twirling and swirling around to the music my mother played on the piano. She never laughed at me, though I did come to find out she had to leave the room a few times, but spared me from ever knowing until I was an adult.
I'm so grateful she always encouraged my spontaneous expression, as I know it made all the difference in me being comfortable in my body.

Once I realized how hard ballet was on the body and how unnatural it was, I gave up on my dream of becoming a ballet dancer. Though I did decide to take dance as an adult at University, enrolling in ballet, modern dance and tap, which I thoroughly enjoyed.

Later, I took up Middle Eastern dance which is my passion, but any kind of dance is such a wonderful confidence building activity and connects you to the earth. I recommend it to anyone. It's never to late to learn to dance, and you can do it whenever and where ever the urge hits and you don't have to take lessons, just move your body.

Dancing is as natural as breathing. And so in celebration of International Dance Day here's a great video, a Live performance by C&C Music Factory,  Gonna Make You Sweat, a song that never fails to get me moving! Everybody dance now!

 Ben Caplan and his talented friends doing the cover version of Uptown Funk will rock off your socks off. I love it more than the original version.

Lastly I found another very special video of 102 year old Alice Barker, who was a dancer during the 30s in Harlem Renaissance and had never seen herself dance on film until now.