Monica Warren, Storyteller

MONICA WARREN, Artist Services Coordinator, Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center

I have been sitting at my desk, neck straining toward the tasks piling up on my computer screen. My right shoulder is tight from unconsciously gripping the mouse and from the worries of the day. It’s 5:54pm and I need to leave in exactly six minutes to get to rehearsal on time. I scurry to gather my things, making a mental list of chores I can’t forget for tonight and tomorrow. Juggle, juggle, juggle —even all the way to the studio, through the evening traffic.

I join the other dancers and lay myself flat onto the studio’s hard and beautiful wooden floor. I close my eyes. This is a moment of true beauty.

I walk briskly into the dance space, then a quick change from pencil skirt and heels to stretchy pants and tee. All the accessories and pretty extras come off; they are unnecessary. I am stripped down to what is essential: me.

I join the other dancers and lay myself flat onto the studio’s hard and beautiful wooden floor. I close my eyes. This is a moment of true beauty. I am able to re-focus my attention on myself: on my body, the connection between what my body is and what it contains. I’m not sure of what this dance rehearsal will hold, but I know that for the next hour and a half it will be mine.

Then we begin to move.