Trip the Light Fantastic
By Taisha Ostler It begins as always, with the bowing of the head, the hands poised, the body capturing itself in archaic frame…Bodies bend their legs, twist their torsos, and lower their gazes…This is how to say grace. – Kara Roseborough I ease myself into the tub and lay my head against the porcelain rim. The faucet (which I have intended to fix for months) drips a steady beat into the water below, creating a lovely little tune. Soon, I find myself imagining what this music would look like embodied by dance. It happens often, this mental movement that will never occupy space outside of my own mind. I am usually dancing alone, but sometimes music washes over me in a way that calls for many bodies—a chorus of graceful and powerful amens expanding into one great whole—and I imagine the stage filled and humming. In my youth, I adhered to regular dance discipline, like prayer, as a