Dance and music are older than human civilization. Dance and music are older than the human species. Organisms on this planet have been communicating through expressive, exhibitory movement and phrased arrangements of sounds for hundreds of millions of years. When we communicate through music and dance, we touch something greater than all that we know. We touch the mystery and the essence of our existence.
George Balanchine choreographed his ballet Serenade to Tchaikovsky Serenade for Strings in C. Serenade premiered on June 10, 1934. The dance still sends shivers through my body every time I see it.
Serenade
Mr. B. sits at the tip of the wing,
he knows the piece, he knows what to expect,
there is always the inevitable misstep,
his interest now is watching the audience.
Behind the curtain, he knows the routine,
choice dancers from the corps, the trembling breath,
then the salve of the soothing release
and from this calm the strings begin to sing.
With an ethereal blue, the curtain lifts
and the dancers, standing, enchanting
after years reaching for the impossible,
touch the divine with their fingertips.
Then a whispered phrase as smooth as a pearl,
“Now, my dears, you may dance before the world.”
Garrett Buhl Robinson is a poet and novelist. garrettrobinson.us
