Tripped over this - why you should dance.

While cleaning my inventory and looking for a quote I saved somewhere safe (which of course means 'where da fu.... did I put that?') I tripped over this in a NC I wrote May 21 2013.  I titled the NC "one more damned dancer stiring the pot". Some of you will recall the situation, some of you won't.  The situation itself doesn't really matter.  The thoughts are pretty good if I do say so myself *grins*

There has been an amazing amount of bullshit (yea,  let's call it what it is.   We're all adults, or supposed to be) flying through SL gor over the last few days.   I decided I'd like to add a little dung on the pile.
---------------------------
I just finished the exhibition of the workshop I've wanted to do for over a year.  I love to teach.   I'm not the only one by any means.   I also love to learn.  I started dancing (badly) -  I didn't suck,  but like many things, it's hard to intuit the rules and the practices.  I started out at one school, continued with another class and then got down to business and starting DOING it.

So, now I'm an expert... HA!  What I have become expert at is smiling, nodding and getting out of the way when the proverbial bosk dung hits the fan.  I dance for 3 reasons:  I'm amazed I can actually do it, it gives me a way to explore what I come to SL to explore (my submission) and my Master wants me too (since I really don’t like even RP whippings *grins).  There are others who seem to enjoy my dancing:  my former Master Blaze Seattle for instance.  But what it comes right down to is I want to.

ANYONE telling me that I have to dance a certain way, have to follow a certain pattern, have to internalize a certain drive is going to find that my submission is somewhat selective, and my language ability ranges from highly educated multisyllabic to fishwife.  I've been listening to the dren flying about, all with it’s own skew.  What I've seen so far is there’s a lot of people who seem to think they have the right to tell other people what they should do.  Unfortunately this isn't new.  It’s just a little more evident right now.

In the past two years, the MOST important thing I've learned about dance is do it because you love it.  It’s bloody thankless work for the most part!  You carve your words, you put your heart and pieces of your soul into them, sometimes feeling like each one has been chiselled out of your own bones.  You set them out on a lovely silver platter and kneel before the world with them held up, head bowed low.

Then some git tells you it’s wrong, or stolen, or you didn't deserve 3rd place, or second or first.  What’s the appropriate reaction?  In my case, it’s been tears and angst, and then anger and fury, and then thinking 'Why did I just put myself through that again?'  Because I had something important I needed to share, not because I needed you to get it, but because I needed to share it.  (dat's the important bit right there btw.) Every girl who dances risks this every time she puts little pieces of herself out for you to ridicule.

Should I stop?  HELL NO!  Will I stop crying?  Probably not.  Will I continue to hold myself at arms length from the dance community as a whole?  Likely.  I've dealt with bullies before and don’t see any particular reason to hang about making nice.  There are people in the dance community I respect highly, even if I don’t agree with them.  Some of them are long time word sculptors, some are literally writing their first words.  Hopefully, I’ll be one of the ones who helps them find their voices and sends them out with methods to protect themselves.