To say I come from a musical family is an understatement.  My father played the guitar and was a working musician for many years. My mother has a beautiful voice and has cantered many church services as well as harmonized many Happy Birthday greetings on the phone. My Aunt Donna is still the music director of her church and plays the piano and organ beautifully. My grandfather played the trumpet in the army band during WWI and I have countless cousins that have demonstrated musical prowess as well as nieces and nephews that seem to have acquired the same musical gene.

As young children, my parents encouraged my siblings and I to play an instrument in grade school.  I worked my way through the piano, guitar and finally the flute of which my older sister would go on and get a PhD in music playing said instrument. Similarly, my little sister had the operatic voice of an angel. Still, I loved music and it was a very important part of my childhood.  

 

“Some day music will be the means of expressing universal religion. Time is wanted for this, but there will come a day when music and its philosophy will become the religion of humanity.”

Hazrat Inayat Khan

By the time I began to study dance in earnest, I was already reading music fluently and could hear phrasing quite well.  I have been told on many occasions that I am a very musical dancer and I take this as people noticing my ear for the language of music. I have confronted symphony conductors during Nutcracker rehearsal when they have carelessly left out bars of the score much to the chagrin of the dancers that have practiced diligently. I have enjoyed choreographing to some beautiful and engaging pieces of music as well as working with some fine composers. I have also used music to soothe my nerves when having an MRI.  I always choose Sara Bareilles and she has not let me down as yet during the two-hour procedures.

 

” After silence, that which comes closest to expressing the inexpressible is music.”

Aldous Huxley

 

As a part of this legacy, I have included music in my children’s life to the best of my ability, hoping to pass along my love and passion for it. My son has played a number of instruments and took a particular liking to the guitar just as his grandfather had.  He has flexed his musical inquiry with his interest in metal and on any number of occasions I have listened to metal artists even though the genre does not speak to me. My daughter, being a dancer, loves all things R&B and hip-hop. I have enjoyed listening to the “old school” beats during the many cyphers I have taken her to over the years. To say I have an eclectic appreciation for music is an understatement.

” At the root of all power and motion, there is music and rhythm, the play of patterned frequencies against the matrix of time. We know that every particle in the physical universe takes its characteristics from the pitch and pattern and overtones of its particular frequencies, its singing. Before we make music, music makes us.”

Joachim-Ernst Berendt

 

What exactly is it about the sounds of arranged notes on a page that are can bring people to tears and evoke such strong emotions? Music has a way of entering the body through the senses and then touching the deepest part of our souls. It is meditative and at the same time explorative.  When words cannot express what a heart is feeling, music steps in and forms the unspeakable. Music has the power to bring people together with a shared sense of humanity. In Sufism, whirling dervishes, who spin with arms extended endlessly, serve as a spiritual offering. Music is able to touch our true self and linger.

I use music when I walk early in the morning as a form of walking meditation. With the right music, I feel a sense of calmness that is unparalleled. The combination of music, nature and walking releases me from the endless mental loop of the day. The constant barrage of questions and concerns is replaced with clarity and serenity. It is one way in which I connect with God and I treasure it. I have known many musicians that have experienced this simply by playing a beautiful piece of music and entering an almost hypnotic state. I can recall a number of times when dancing an adage or piece of choreography, I have felt an almost out of body experience. It is ecstatic and so freeing.

So dance to whatever music frees you.  If it is Snoop Dog or Avenge Sevenfold than so be it. Music is individual as it should be.  The point is that you allow it to take you on a journey, leaving this hard world behind if only just for a few moments.