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Welcome to the "How Dance Changed My Life" project - an opportunity to tell your story!

Almost everyone I've met on the dance floor has had a story to share with me about how learning to dance has positively affected their life, often in very profound and meaningful ways, and frequently with lessons that have extended well beyond the dance floor.  

From the gentleman who told me how learning to dance helped him to appreciate in a very different way to "listen" to his partner, to a couple who shared with me after a private lesson that due to their more rigid, conservative upbringing, they had never learned to embrace one another in a compassionate, caring way, but that after our class, the floodgates opened, and they discovered a kind of intimacy that neither of them had ever known was missing in their relationship.  There are countless stories about how partner dancing has made an impact on people's lives that extend well beyond the dance floor.  

Weeks or months after many of my classes or workshops, students will frequently share these kinds of epiphanies or "aha" moments with me, and I am so appreciative.  These are wonderful, meaningful insights, the result of something which, despite the fact that they're all related to the common denominator of dance, each of us must experience and evoke in our own unique way.  Hearing your stories often inspires me to reflect on my own experiences and perspectives, and makes my appreciation of how we interact through dance that much the richer.  Like John Saxe's poem about the "six blind men and the elephant", each of our own perspectives contributes to a better understanding of the whole.  It's also just wonderful to share! -- which is what inspired me to first create the "How Dance Changed My Life" project.

This project is a vehicle for you to share your personal stories, insights, discoveries, opinions, or lessons learned about dance.  If you're not sure where to start, here are some questions to consider:

  • What was your life like before you started dance? (How was your time spent; what did you do for fun, who did you hang out with in your free time, etc)
  • How has dance changed your life (physically, mentally, socially, emotionally, interpersonally, etc)?
  • How has it changed the lives of others you may know?
  • In learning to dance, did you have any "aha" moments?  What were they?
  • How has dance affected your interpersonal relationship with others?  
  • Has dance affected your relationship with the community at large?
  • How has dance extended itself off of the dance floor for you? (ie, what other doors has it opened, what experiences or lessons from dance have you applied to other parts of your life,? etc)  

These are just a few thoughts to get you started.  Please feel free to share anything you wish.

My hope is to eventually produce a compilation of stories, lessons, insights, and anecdotes that can be shared with the larger community as appropriate. If you don't wish for any part of your story or name to be shared, please let me know.

Many thanks again.  I can't wait to hear your stories

Ari

PS:  Please don't feel obliged to use this website's writing program to tell your story.  You can use your own program and then cut and paste the final copy into this one, or simply email it to arilevitt@rolluptherug.com.  If you don't feel as comfortable writing as you would just talking, let Ari know and he would be happy to interview you or to suggest a different medium for getting your story told.



The "How Dance Changed My Life" Project