The power of poignant dance

Lately, I've been very into watching So You Think You Can Dance. I came across this contemporary piece from season 5 and upon watching it 1 time, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 times (you get the idea), I continued to feel that it portrays a poignant relationship that I know all too well. When I looked into the video, I found that the piece was choreographed by Mia Michaels, it is called Addiction, and it won an Emmy. Seeing as eating disorder resembles addiction in many ways, my emotional response makes a lot of sense! Without words, the piece has so much to say about attachment. Parts of me identified with Kayla's role and other protector parts (like the eating disorder) identify with Kupono's role. For too long, this relationship danced within me, it dances within so many of you, and within me it brings up old feelings of longing, despair, and of feeling trapped. The dance convey what I think it often feels like to be struggling within an eating disorder. A question for anyone who conceptualizes their eating disorder through metaphor: if you danced with your eating disorder, what would the dance look like?

I have more thoughts on SYTYCD: A couple nights again, I watched Amy Yakima and Travis Wall dance to a contemporary piece that Wall choreographed to "Wicked Game." It was inspirational and lovely. The first thing that Wall says when the video opens is that the piece is "about the games we play when we are entering a new relationship." In so many ways, recovering from an eating disorder means entering into a new relationship with yourself. We encounter resistance to move away from our old patterns and fear that if we try, we will not make it. There are so many other elements to the relationship. If nothing else, it is a labyrinthine dance about approaching and resisting. I cannot imagine that the dance to recover one's authentic Self is very different from the piece of art that Amy and Travis created when they danced a few nights ago: