"Why I Dance" by Jenna Elfman
In celebration of National Dance Day 2018, actress & dancer Jenna Elfman shares, “Why I Dance.”
There is nothing better than freedom. And freedom of expression is one of the most potent freedoms that exist. (I don’t need to go into a world history lesson here, but I’m pretty sure we all can agree that without freedom of expression, this world would be a pretty grim place to live.)I trained in dance as a child and continued on up to a professional level before I transitioned into my acting career. And I still dance. All the time. I can’t not dance. Dance has given me so much throughout my life and continues to be a gift of succor, focus, liberation, self-determinism and always, always, always brings me back to my own sense of “home” as a human being and creative person. On top of that, my dance training has given me a strong work ethic, a stable sense of self, determination, a foundation of confidence, self-determinism, persistence and dedication to goals that I need to succeed in every area of life. And I call upon those skills daily.I love how dance makes me feel. When on a TV or film set, right before that camera starts rolling, I’m dancing. At home with my kids, at a park or alone in my bedroom working through a problem— I dance. Sometimes I rent out a dance studio, play music and just dance. With it, I can express my passion, my anger, my sensuality, my humor, my love, my joy, my frustration, my sense of longing, my hopes, my fears— everything. And I can make those expressions beautiful, ugly, funny, crazy, wistful, fast, slow, right, wrong— WHATEVER I WANT. Because it is my freedom of expression. And it is anybody’s freedom of expression.It is good for us to express ourselves—whether in front of an audience of one, of thousands, or alone with ourselves. It really helps lighten the load of living. And, it’s free. And it’s healthy. And it’s everybody’s. It can be done anywhere, at any time. You don’t need special training to do it, to benefit from it. Really, it is just so liberating to lift your arm and make it do whatever you want it to do, simply because you decided to do it and then went right on ahead and did it. I know, it sounds wayyyyy too simple. Hey, why don’t you go ahead and try that right now— lift your arm... go on, it’s okay, do it! Awesome. Now make it move in whatever way you want, any kind of movement you wish. Make it express ANY emotion, thought or idea that YOU want it to convey, for however long YOU wish to create that movement, it doesn’t matter. What matters is that YOU get to choose. YOU get to decide to express yourself and then manifest that decision with the motion of your body. And know that you are doing it. There is just something very therapeutic about knowing, self-determined expression which is very rebellious to the status quo of human automaticity. For so many reasons, dance makes us better human beings. And from what I can observe, when human beings are doing better, our whole, crazy world gets that much better. That’s why I dance.
About National Dance Day
Established in 2010 by Dizzy Feet co-founder, Nigel Lythgoe, National Dance Day is an annual celebration dedicated to dance, that encourages Americans of all ages to incorporate dance into their lives. By creating a focused day of celebration, Dizzy Feet Foundation aims to educate the public about dance and its many benefits, as well as make dance accessible and inclusive to everyone.Dizzy Feet Foundation (DFF) believes that participation in dance connects the mind and body, promotes health and wellbeing, connects us with others and enables us to find joy through dance and movement. National Dance Day (NDD) is a day of celebrating dance, in all its forms, and takes place annually on the last Saturday in July - Saturday July 28th, 2018
