Dance Free in Floyd
~ The following originally appeared in the Floyd Press on February 22nd.
I don’t play a musical instrument or a sport, but I dance. The small Massachusetts beach town I grew up in was home to The Surf Ballroom, a club with a big dance floor that hosted musical acts, some as well known as Sonny and Cher. Since I was a Surf-going teenager, dance has been an important part of my life, which is why I was thrilled when I learned in 2004 that Dance Free was coming to Floyd.
Local artist, dancer, and founder of Floyd’s Dance Free, Lora Giessler tells me that Dance Free was born in Boston, Massachusetts, in the late 60’s. Its purpose of providing a safe, smoke and alcohol free atmosphere for self expression through free style dance remains the same today.
“About 9 years ago, Olivia, a beautiful dancer and teacher from Paris and Boston did a spontaneous workshop with a group of us in Floyd that had been in a creative improv class together,” Lora told me. “He spoke of Dance Free New England. I was so inspired by this form of Dance and by him that I traveled to Boston to find out what it was all about,” she continued.
I was familiar with Dance Free from the book “Tuesdays with Morrie,” written by Mitch Albom, the bestselling author who also wrote “The Five People You Meet in Heaven.” Morrie Shwartz, the man behind the book’s title, had been Albom’s college professor and was a Dance Free regular in the early days of its existence. Ironically and sadly, Morrie contracted Lou Gehrig’s disease (ALS), a fatal neurological disease that destroys muscle, and had to give up dancing.
In his book, Albom writes of Morrie’s winning spirit and how it shone throughout his decline into ALS. About Morrie’s involvement with Dance Free, Albom says: “They had flashing lights and booming speakers and Morrie would wander in among the mostly student crowd, wearing a white T-shirt and black sweatpants and a towel around his neck, and whatever music was playing, that’s the music to which he danced. He’d do the lindy to Jimi Hendrix … Once, he brought a tango tape and got them to play it over the speakers. Then he commandeered the floor, shooting back and forth like some hot Latin lover. When he finished, everyone applauded.”
The original Dance Free, which actually took place in Cambridge, a subway stop away from downtown Boston, was only 24 miles from my hometown and yet, I never went. By the time I read “Tuesday’s with Morrie,” I lived in Virginia and was two decades too late to see Morrie dance.
I remember how excited Lora was when she got back from her trip to Boston, where she experienced Dance Free first hand. I thought of the scene from Albom’s book as we mused together about how much fun it would be to have a Dance Free in Floyd. But it didn’t happen then.
Several years after Lora’s trip, Floyd resident Maria Becke approached Lora and expressed her interest in helping to bring Dance Free to Floyd. Maria, a certified DansKinetics instructor with disc jockeying experience, offered to DJ the dances. Arrangements were made to host it once a month at the Winter Sun Music Hall, where the spacious hardwood floor has just the right slip and slide for a dancer’s feet.
Since the winter of 2004 on the fourth Friday of each month dancers twirl, whirl, shake, rattle and roll – sometimes with a partner but mostly alone – to the wide variety of music that Maria plays. Maria’s selections are representative of many kinds of music with influences from all corners of the world. She knows I love it when she throws an old Motown standard into the mix, a reggae favorite, or an occasional disco hit. Sometimes she can’t help herself and hops down from the stage where she serves up the mix and dances with us.
I’m grateful to have such an outlet for creative movement right here in Floyd. I love to dance the way my husband loves to play soccer, and when Dance Free night rolls around, I treat it like a favorite sport and as if I was preparing for a marathon. I rest during the day and when the time comes to go, I fill up a jug of water and fix myself a high protein snack. I want to make sure I can keep up my energy level because I know once the Dance Free music starts I won’t sit down until it stops.
Last year I wrote about Dance Free here at Loose Leaf: “With my eyes closed and slightly dizzy from spinning, I could have been back at The Surf, dancing in 1969,” I wrote.
Post Notes: Photos – 1. Maria, Dance Free DJ, adjusts the sound. 2. Lora doing improv while other dancers dance in the background. You can read more about Dance Free on the Winter Sun website HERE. The next one is scheduled for March 23rd. Dance Free, the poem, is HERE.
March 3rd, 2007 10:56 am
This sounds like such a wonderful time! I’ve not heard of Dance Free before. But it sounds athletic and energizing and expressive!
Michele sent me along…and I’m glad that happened. I got to learn about something new!
March 3rd, 2007 12:52 pm
It is always nice when you talk about dancing. Your spirit just shines through your post. I am pretty sure there were some fellow Dance Free members on the front rows of Donna the Buffalo. Their moves are all smooth and really involve the hands?
We are supposed to be seeing one of Martin’s favorite bands at the CoffePot in Roanoke tonight. I haven’t been to that bar in 17 years. Maybe I’ll get a little dancing in though their music is not really something I enjoy! I’ll pretend!
March 3rd, 2007 2:14 pm
Hi Colleen, Sounds like fun, I keep thinking I’m going to go out to one of these but with one thing & annother I never do, after a week of work I just want to stay home & play with the kids! Thanks for stopping by my blog again last night.
March 3rd, 2007 2:41 pm
An updated Dick Clark! You’d have loved The Rockettes and Riverdance.
March 3rd, 2007 6:19 pm
Keep up your energy… oh, isn’t there supposed to be a lunar eclipse tonight… magical time.
March 3rd, 2007 11:25 pm
My old haunt! Dance Freedom, at 11 Garden Street:
http://www.dancefreedom.com/dancehi.htm
There’s a great synchronicity to this post for me. Dance Freedom is one of the very few things about the Boston area that I truly miss. At last night’s Woodview Coffeehouse I sat next to a woman who moved down here from New England and who wants to start up a Free Dance in the area, so maybe together we can get something going. I’m so glad it’s come to Floyd.
A listing of free dance venues, nationwide and international, is kept by Dance New England at:
http://www.dne.org/dancedirectory/
I don’t see anything for Floyd, so maybe let DNE know.
March 4th, 2007 5:43 am
What a wonderful fun thing Dance Free is…! It sounds like you have a fabulous time and get quite a workout, too, Colleen….Someone should take some video of you dancing on one of these Friday Nights and then you can post it for all of us to see! Yeah….THAT would be a whole lot of fun!
March 4th, 2007 6:30 am
Hi Colleen sounds very energetic and like a lot of fun never heard of dance free over here.
March 4th, 2007 8:47 am
This sounds like such fun and great for the spirit. I actually don’t remember hearing about it when I lived in the Boston area.
Wasn’t Tuesdays With Morrie a movie? I seem to remember that description of him dancing with the towel. What a great way to release bad energy and fill your soul…so keep dancin’!
March 4th, 2007 8:52 am
Tuesday’s with Morrie was a movie as well as a book with Jack Lemmon as Morrie. Soon I will have to make the breakthrough and post a video, but the tech-no-logical part of me isn’t easily up for the learing curve.
March 4th, 2007 6:21 pm
It sounds like you have a lot of fun with this.
Mitch Albom’s books have been popular in the UK too, quite recently. After a well known pop singer made a reference to one as a current read, there was quite a demand for the “Tuesdays with Morrie” book and a lot of people went on to read the “Five People”.
Here today via Michele’s! Hiya!
rashbre
March 5th, 2007 9:35 am
Colleen, have you heard of “The Wave”? It’s an “ecstatic” dance routine by Gabrielle Roth. Here’s a link:
http://www.amazon.com/Wave-Gabrielle-Roth/dp/B0001610SO
I first “did” the wave at a “Women Who Run With The Wolves” workshop and then my friend bought it and we did it at a women’s retreat. Fun and good exercise!
Your dance groups sounds like a lot of fun!
Susan
March 5th, 2007 9:46 am
I’m pretty sure Lora, the Floyd Dance Free founder, has done The Wave. I recall her talking about it. Thanks for the link, Susan.
March 5th, 2007 12:36 pm
Hi Colleen and Susan – Yeah, I know the 5Rhythms which create the Wave and I’m passionate about Gabrielle’s work. The 5Rhythms practice is a movement meditation based in a cosmology that Gabrielle has articulated through dance. I was introduced to the Wave in Philli with Ya Acov from the UK. Since then I’ve danced with Gabrielle, Jonathan (her son) and the Olympia, Washigton tribe. I’m headed out to CA in a couple of weeks and will meet another teacher and will merge with the extended tribe there. I highly recommend two of Gabrielle’s books – Maps to Ecstacy and Sweat Your Prayers. For more info on Gabrielle’s 5R’s check out http://www.movingcenterschool.com