Let the Sunshine In

Chalk it up to whatever makes it make sense to you. The options being 1. I've gone completely off my melancholy rocker 2. I am nothing but sap and mush at heart 3. It's Indian Summer in The Netherlands and in answer to the calendar marking the start of Autumn the sunshine is reaching down from the heavens (a little like a gift) giving us these magical warm-and-cozy-last-stolen-days-of summer before we have to hunker down for the onset of winter.

Sunshine on my shoulders makes me happy

One of the first performances I remember in shadowy detail is the solo I danced in a church house near the University of Utah campus where I trained from the age of four. I was seven years old and I was dressed in a tricot tunic of the brightest yellow which hung with a single strap over one shoulder and billowed open when I twirled. My mom made it.

Sunshine in my eyes can make me cry

Later, to this same tune, my sisters and I danced together. I must have been 10 by then, which made the two of them 8 and 6 years old in turn. My mom created the same tunic for each of them and the three of us danced our hearts out knowing, in the precious innocence of our youth, that we were beautiful and our movement magical. I know when we danced we made our mother cry.

Sunshine on the water looks so lovely

Later than that, as the teacher, I picked up this gem of my past and choreographed for my eight year old daughter as the lead soloist, twirling in her own yellow gown--skirt billowing outward--performing with all the passion and grace I once imagined I possessed while tears poured down her mama's cheeks watching from the wings.

Sunshine almost always makes me high

Most of the time there is a song in my head (often it is an entire radio station) Always, always, there is a song in my heart. Today, for whatever reason (take your pick from the list above) this is the song accompanying my movement.

If I had a day that I could give you,
I'd give to you a day just like today
If I had a song that I could sing for you
I'd sing a song to make you feel this way

If I had a tale that I could tell you
I'd tell a tale sure to make you smile
If I had a wish that I could wish for you
I'd make a wish for sunshine all the while

I think I might be singing because I know you.