Finding Beauty in Unexpected Places, Day 22: Dancing Toward Perfection

This has been a week of mistakes - my students and my own. It was exhausting. It made it hard to see the beauty in much of anything. And even though my lack of full blog entries might suggest otherwise, I was still able to think of a moment of loveliness at the end of each day - be it a meeting that went well or a hour stolen with friends. I'm starting to think this crazy scheme might be working.

Friday, I was finally able to get back to work on my dissertation. I read Athol Fugard's Master Harold...and the Boys in preparation for an interview in a couple weeks. After a week of mistakes, this passage struck me. It is a beautiful description of art and performance and why they are necessary.


In this scene, Sam, a black man in 1950's South Africa, is explaining a ballroom dancing competition in his community to his white employer's son, Hally. Hally has just asked what happens if the dancers accidentally bump into each other.


SAM. There's no collisions out there, Hally. Nobody trips or stumbles or bumps into anybody else. That's what that moment is all about. To be one of those finalists on that dance floor is like...like being in a dream about a world in which accidents don't happen. [...] That's what I've been trying to say to you all afternoon. And it's beautiful because that is what we want life to be like. But instead, like you said, Hally, we're bumping into each other all the time. Look at the three of us this afternoon: I've bumped into Willie, the two of us have bumped into you, you've bumped into your mother, she bumping into your Dad...None of us knows the steps and there's no music playing. And it doesn't stop with us. The whole world is doing it all the time. Open a newspaper and what do your read? America has bumped into Russia, England is bumping into India, rich man bumps into poor man. Those are big collision, Hally. They make for a lot of bruises. People get hurt in all that bumping, and we're sick and tired of it now. It's been going on for too long. Are we never going to get it right?...Learn to dance life like champions instead of always being just a bunch of beginners at it?



HALLY. You've got a vision, Sam!


SAM. Not just me. What I'm saying to you is that everybody's got it. That's why there's only standing room left for the Centenary Hall in two weeks' time. For as long as the music lasts, we are going to see six couples get it right, the way we want life to be.


HALLY. But is that the best we can do, Sam...watch six finalists dreaming about the way it should be?


SAM. I don't know. But it starts with that. Without the dream we won't know what we're going for. And anyway I reckon there are a few people who have got past just dreaming about it and are trying for something real.