A Dream of Dancing

Dream of Dancing

In the movie, the actors are dancing, in period clothes, to period music, and then just weaving about the dance floor, clasped in one another’s arms; from time to time the tune changes, but the dancers are the same and wear the same clothes. The camera focuses on the dancer’s feet; they are close together, stepping back and forth in time to the music.

I am dancing with a rather tall, slender young woman wearing a soft wrinkled dress that I feel rather than see. We are dancing close together and I have one arm behind her waist and the other one in her hand. I realize that I am dreaming. The music is slow waltz time, soft and languorous. I concentrate on feeling my hand behind her waist, I move my hand up to her back, I feel her warm, living body with my fingers, I am feeling the skin and the muscles underneath, I feel her muscles are warm, I feel her muscles warming my fingers… the dream is pleasant… I want it to go on… the dream does go on… I can almost see with my fingers… the dress, her skin, the play of her muscles as she turns forward and back…

The dream ends.

There is a state of feeling in the dream, in which time seems to have stopped, but the dancing doesn’t stop; my hand touches the dancer’s shoulder and upper arm opposite me, in fact behind her in a peculiar fashion which would be difficult to duplicate unless we melt together, facing one another… there is no awkwardness… the dance continues, although the dream has ended.

The air is cool; it is early morning.