Musicians Don't Dance

Musicians Don’t Dance
Melanie Hunter

I remember long ago watching my grandfather play his violin for crowds, people from all over came to hear the strings singing under his knowingly loving hands. I also remember never seeing him dance or otherwise physically enjoying the music. The only time one saw joy on his face at the sound of a note was when he was playing, he always claimed to love music, but playing was his joy. I asked my grandmother why he never danced with her, why he allowed her to dance for hours on end with other men while he watched or played.. This is what she told me.

Musicians don’t dance.
Why? I asked

Because they feel the music differently than singers or dancers. They hear it, feel it in their mouths and hands depending on the instrument of choice. They’d rather play the music, feel it waft up around them and spread towards the singers and dancers. They’d rather feel it as they hit the different notes with their hands or play the beat or blow the horn, they have a need to be the music; to be as close as possible to it, to lose themselves in the billowing sound. They’d rather play the music and see others enjoying themselves by dancing, as they watch they are able to become those floating across the floor and join with them while continuing to play. They bring forth the idea of the piece, make it possible for it to survive. They are the Conception.
Singers on the other hand embody the soul of the piece, they bring forth the emotions; the meanings; they are those who feel it sit in their throats, who feel they must utter those words or choke on them. Music is a train of thought, a sentence, a paragraph, a need to vocalize the feelings they are suddenly hit with. Singers are the growing form of the piece. They are the Womb.
Dancers feel the music with their bodies, they feel compelled to dance to the beat and to rise up with the swells, they are the riders of the song. They float on the waves and become one with the body of the piece. Dancers exude the physicality of the music and show it to the world. They are the unspoken thoughts of the music and it’s composer, they are the picture drawn with ease or haste depending on the tone. Dancers take an unruly beat and domesticate it, they use it to power their movements. They are the Birth.

Oh, I suddenly understood now
Musicians don’t dance

I became a dancer, I now tame the unruly tune with my body. I am the Birth.