When I was young, I wanted to be a ballet dancer. And when I say ballet dancer, I mean like the young man in the video I have included in this post. The song, Take Me to Church, is by a band called Hoizier. I’ve included a link to the original video on youtube, though, due to its sadness, I am unable to watch it again, even though I love the song. The original video shows two lovers, one of whom is beaten to death because he is gay, and they live in Russia. It breaks my heart even to think of it, so watch at your own risk.
To my joy, another video done to the same song, came along. In it a young dancer, Sergei Polunin, dances inside of what looks like a half-built church. The floor is spotted cement, the walls are painted white, and the windows, arched and tall, open to a green and lush forest. The sun spills in through the windows from time to time, pattered through the dust motes in the air as they might be through the panes of stained glass that some churches have, but the simple, white light is very effective.
I cannot say enough about the dance, but to tell you that I watch this video when I especially need to be bestirred by youth and energy and passion and the beauty of a human body in motion. The way he pushes himself off the floor, or leaps through the air, or pivots, all of these classic ballet movements become impassioned, visceral expressions of love. At one point, as the dancer bows, on his knees, the sun streams powerfully through the window. I suspect that this was meant to happen, that there are strong lights outside of sight to cause this effect, but I’d prefer to think that the light was serendipitous, and the dance spontaneous.
Watch and enjoy.
I must pardon myself from both writing and posting on Friday, as I’d gone out to dinner and made quite merry with my family. But today, I made up for it, by writing both yesterday’s and today’s quota, around 4,000 words for both days.
Word Count 4/4/2015 – 4,013
Total for April – 8,198
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