Jacqueline Thornley: Serious in the Morning (Class Reading #1)

On page 19 in Sacred and Profane Beauty, Van Der Leeuw describes how we (Americans) are serious in the morning and then play and dance at night, while other cultures intertwine dance and seriousness. For them, the dance is essentially their job as it brings them closer to God, or has come other spiritual significance. Personally I’ve always seen dance as something to do in your free time, not as something that should be a priority. But Van Der Leeuw certainly makes a case for the importance of dance. In class we talked about the internal rhythm we all have, our heartbeat, and how easy it is to find dance in everyday places. On the walk to my next class I suddenly became very aware of my own internal rhythm and walked with a little more pep in my step that day.