Feeling the Music

“To live is to be musical, starting with the blood dancing in your veins.  Everything living has a rhythm. Do you feel your music?”

– Michael Jackson

Entering the outdoor dance grove featuring a live DJ for Mister Sunday in Brooklyn, I received one of the most unusual stamps I’ve ever had put on my hand.  Perhaps this was a symbol that it was indeed time to dance.  In fact, every time I go dancing I think of the Michael Jackson quote: “Do you feel your music?”  Watching him perform, you can physically see the music coursing through his body.  He said it over and over again when people asked him about the secret to his dancing, “you have to feel.”

As I looked around at the people who were ecstatic that it was the weekend, laughing, drinking, and letting go on the dance floor, I thought, “if I want to ‘feel my music,’ I need to get out of my head.”  Three glasses of wine later (plus one accidentally spilled down the front of my shirt by a reveler) and I still felt like I was watching myself.  One Latin dancer tried to get me to feel it and we did some fun salsa moves, but it just wasn’t quite there- I sensed that he felt the music better than I could.  Don’t get me wrong, I can shake it, but was the music in my veins?  Not like MJ.  Not even close.

Later in the night, as the Latin dancer was swaying to the beat in his own type of trance,  he threw his head back and exclaimed, “this is like Yoga!  House Music is like Yoga.  You get what I’m saying?” and that’s when it clicked. I closed my eyes and listened to the repetitive rhythm.  I smelled the “incense” burning.  I sensed the peaceful and happy vibe of those around me and I thought, “this is like meditating.  This is like Yoga!”  I started to feel what he was saying.