Community

Community has been on my mind lately, and I wanted to say a few things about the national blues dance scene. ***Sappy post alert, read on at your own risk***

I love this community. I love that it allows people to learn dance in the context of a genre that deals with all the ups and downs of life, and that it gives them an opportunity to connect to more parts of the rich and varied thing we call American culture. I am deeply appreciative of the amount of work that we, individually and collectively, put into this art form.

I love that our competitions are truly friendly. Feelings happen, but we deal with them, we get support & commiseration from our friends, and we move on. Not making finals is not a deal-breaker for belonging here, and I think that is so important. 

I love that we are having discussions around race, gender roles, and cultural appropriation. Even though they’re hard conversations, even though people get angry, and people get hurt, and people mess up, and apologizing is hard, and admitting you’re wrong is hard, and the internet is not the ideal place to have these conversations, I’m so glad we’re having them. To me, this is The Work. My impact on society at large is not going to be significant, but my—and *your*—impact on this community is much larger. The blues dance community is not very big! And because of that, every. single. person. here. matters. You matter. Your actions matter. Your words matter. Your help, no matter how big or how small, matters.

There are days that I have burn-out feelings. There are days that I wonder if we’re doing a Good Thing. And I know that we still have a long way to go on many fronts. But most days, the love, and kindness, and passion, and care that so many people show every day inspires me, and makes me happy to call this community my home, and my family.