Dance

This is a chapter from my fifth book called Freedom

I noticed that the word guidance has the word dance in it and that is how I decided to write this chapter. I started by looking at the etymology of the word dance. According to my friend Gemini there is a theory that it might be linked to the Low Frankish word "dintjan" which means "to tremble" or "quiver." This connection comes from the Old Frisian word "dintje" with a similar meaning. While researching I encountered the fact that quiver (the verb) and quiver (the noun) are completely unrelated just like Polish (the proper adjective) and polish (the verb). This is a sign and maybe I should look into Polish dance. From the country Poland. Not pole dancing. Dance is a form of human expression. Dance can help tell a story. I am reading about Polish folk dance. Specifically the Polonaise dance. The dance developed from a traditional form called the "walking dance". The French word for Polish is Polonaise. By the way, France and dance rhyme. The Polonaise dance was banned during the Russian occupation of Poland. I just realized that the capital of Poland is Warsaw, which took me back to something I had read earlier in my research, "We dance in the streets to celebrate the end of wars." This makes me think. We dance for freedom. We dance to be free. We dance because we are free. We are free to dance. The fact that the Polonaise dance survived was an act of resistance. Another word that rhymes with dance.

I will take this story to France now. I was looking at the different dances in France and the dance that caught my attention was the can-can. According to wikipedia, the dance was considered scandalous and there were attempts to suppress it. You can read the reason why for yourself. Reading some more I learnt that the can-can became popular in Canada. How poetic. The cancan dance is the flagship dance of the Moulin Rouge show. The word "cancan" is an old French slang term for malicious gossip and similar to "talking trash". That gives me new meaning to the term "trash can". Researching some more, I came across the slogan "Dance est ma liberté" and I quite like it. It translates to "Dance is my freedom". It promotes dance as a form of liberation and empowerment. The origin of this slogan does not appear to be documented. That would have made an interesting story. This has me thinking of what other dance slogans are there? My friend Gemini shares a few with me. "Every step a story" - This captures the idea that dance can be a powerful form of storytelling. "Find your rhythm. Find yourself" - This highlights the connection between dance and self-discovery. "Dance like nobody's watching" - This playful slogan encourages people to let loose and enjoy the freedom of dance.

The one I like the most is "Tap into Happiness". This slogan was trademarked by the American Tap Dance Foundation in 1998. They are a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting and preserving tap dance. My friend Gemini tells me that they created the slogan to capture the joyful and energetic nature of tap dancing, hoping to encourage more people to participate. I read that tap dance originated in the United States as a fusion of African and Irish American dance forms probably from contact between enslaved Africans and Irish indentured servants on Southern plantations. Slaves turned to percussive dancing because often they were prohibited from using their percussive instruments to communicate. I like how just by noticing the word dance in the word guidance I was led on a journey from Poland to France to the story of tap dance in the United States. But is there more? Was there something more to takeaway from this chapter? I found this post online titled "Guidance – God, You and I Dance". You know I like these types of equations if you often read what I write. Guidance = G + U + I + dance. Where G stands for God. I like this sentence from the story, "Dance together with God, trusting God to lead and to guide you through each season of your life." At the end is their link to a free ebook and their EFT Tapping Course. EFT stands for Emotional Freedom Techniques. And quite coincidentally their latest post is about "Dancing with Wisdom - Discerning Your Yes in Challenging Times". I also learnt that July 11th is Emotional Freedom Day. That is exactly one week from today. I am now subscribed to their youtube channel.