Dancing Girls and Blessings

Every Wednesday around 3 pm, I head over to the IMPACT building and am greeted by the smiling and glowing faces of nine elementary school girls who are all dressed and ready to move. They squeal with delight as they run up the stairs and start running and twirling around the carpeted floor as I get the sound system set up and prepare myself for the next hour of exploring movement with these girls. 

We start the same every week, with a game of follow the leader, tumbling, twirling, jumping, swooping, and of course laughing. By this time, if I wasn't ready to dance, I now am. After follow the leader we do a series of stretches, which usually aren't executed quite as accurately as they should be, but at least they're getting a bit of the stretch in the odd positions I see them in. 

Then finally we dance. We have taught the younger girls all sorts of dances - Swing, Charleston, Irish, and even a bit of African. We stumble through our Romanian, relying mostly on over-exaggerated movements of our feet and a few key Romanian words that get us through the hour. The girls don't seem to notice our botched Romanian, they are so fixed on how their feet are moving and how they can add their own flair to the moves. This usually ends in chaos because they get a little too caught up in their own steps, but I have realized that this class means more to these girls than learning to dance. The class is a place where they can come and get a taste of sweet childish play that sometimes seems nearly impossible to find in Lupeni. The class is a place where they can come and simply be with other girls just like them and run around and laugh and PLAY. 

At the beginning of the semester, Brandi Bates, the incredible woman who opened up this opportunity for me and the other girls leading the classes, told us that there was only one dance class in town for the girls and the dances that were being taught to them were hardly appropriate for their age level. She compared it to the popular TV channel style of dancing KISSTV, which is comparable to MTV of the States. I can't believe that the pressures of dancing that sexually would even be considered appropriate for the girls that come to my class every week. I can't even imagine myself dancing like that! I feel that the youth of today is losing their opportunity to grow up in a way that is unspoiled by over-sexualized media. It breaks my heart that these girls have to grow up so young and they don't have the opportunity to be a child and be blissfully ignorant of the broken world around them. I wish they had more opportunities, like the dance class, to show them that it is okay to be goofy and run around and sometimes fall flat on your butt, and that there are others around you that are doing the same, sharing in this wonderful reality that life is a dance and you should dance your heart out every day.

Last Wednesday, I decided to stay for the older girls' class, which is directly after my class. It was a completely different experience from the class that I lead, because while the girls still have fun, they can actually get a pretty good handle on the steps! It was fun to see them so engrossed in the dances they were being taught and to see them having a blast. I am mentioning this specific class because the end of this class is one of my favorite memories of Romania thus far. 

We end the class, of course, by cooling down. The cool down is usually a free dance, but this class ended in a circle dance. The video below is the song that we played during the dance. It is a song by Nickel Creek. Something happened in the room when we put this song on and got into a circle, something that is hard to describe. I felt that everyone in the room was hyper aware of each other and the specialness of the time that we had shared that day. I felt the Spirit of the Beloved weaving through us as we danced our simple dance. It was as if He was reminding us that we were loved so deeply and that our time together was a pleasure for Him to view. Everyone was silent during the final dance and when the song ended there was a second of stillness. It was one of the most touching moments I have ever experienced. The girls felt it, too. Their faces shined with excitement as they gathered their things to leave, giving last minute hugs to us over and over again and asking us if there would be another class next week. 

 

I am so thankful that I have been able to teach these classes to these girls. It has been such a blessing to see them grow in confidence these past weeks and they will be one of the things I miss most about Romania when we get on that plane in a few short weeks.