Prague

I’ve been watching So You Think You Can Dance (SYTYCD) pretty much since it started airing on US TV. The show is now in it’s 8th season, and a lot of things about it are a little slicker, more produced, costumey, and commercial then they used to be, but the talent of the dancers and the choreographers is amazing and inspiring to watch.

Just recently, the top 7 guys left on the show did a beautiful group piece to Damien Rice’s Prague. If you don’t already own music by Damien Rice, you absolutely should– and by the way, SYTYCD is a great resource for music ideas… every episode I end up Soundhound/Shazaming at least a couple new songs. Take a look at the performance below (if you’re reading this via email, you’re going to need to go to the blog online to watch):

I was reminded of the first time I had heard that particular song– which was actually on an earlier episode of SYTYCD, a couple seasons earlier. You can also check out the full version of the dance, with slightly different choreography.

It was a solo dance that brought me to tears. There’s pain, sorrow, loss, leaving, and beautiful dance in this piece. Not too long after, I danced to the song myself, and found that in movement, doors opened in me that I didn’t know were closed. It was the most cathartic dance I had had in a long time. Sometimes the body holds on to emotions and feelings and stress in ways that we don’t realize or expect: the recurring neck pain, the catharsis that occurs in deep hip stretching, the way that you may not think you are upset until you are given a hug and break down in tears. I didn’t know that I was holding on to so much until I was able to find a song– this one– that I could truly connect to and dance within, and let it out.

Tomorrow’s post: Thursday Tunes…