To live is to dance, to dance is to live.�Snoopy

Give me the frantic footwork and beautiful ballet arms of a dance studio. The dueling musical selections, the tapping feet, and the sweaty bodies excite me. Leotards are haute couture�at least on younger bodies.

Exercise is a nasty word. It�s work. It�s repetitive. It�s boring. I do it because it�s good for my body. But dance is creative. It�s beautiful. It�s art. Dance is life. It�s good for my soul.

Both life and dancing require an ability to give in. If you fight the music while you�re dancing, you�ll never appear graceful or get where you�re going. If you give in to the music, just a little bit, you maybe, maybe have half a chance of reaching your goals. The older I get the more I realize that going through life gracefully is similar.

In dance, as in life, you can be a little out of step as long as it�s the right step, you�re in a group, and you are confidently wrong. You can single tap instead of double tap but you can�t add taps willy-nilly. If the final pose is right in jazz, people will overlook the fact you�re on the wrong foot.

Dancing requires a sense of timing. So does life.

So, I�ll put on my tap shoes and pretend I�m Ann Miller except with shorter legs or Shirley Temple with more maturity�take your pick. I�ll put on my jazz shoes and pretend I�m Gwen Verdon except I�m alive. I�ll pretend and pretend and pretend because I�m just a dancing fool.

|