Friday, July 3, 2009

adele shaw ~dancing to her own beat


This is a photo of a young woman named Adele Shaw. She is doing a rather primal spring dance with a lute in hand. This is one of 2 images taken of her in the 1920 at the edge of Chapin Lake in Michigan. Why she dressed up and did this dance and had her photo taken we will never know. All we know is that she did it and did it her bare feet dancing to her own beat. I love the idea of "marching to your own beat" I think I have always done so and often with many consequences that were dreadful but yet still I continued. I rarely would want or be able to"follow the crowd" and did as I pleased. I honestly have never been one for public dancing or even much for dancing although as a young child I remember my mother taking me to the ballet downtown and how much of an impression it made on me. Forever I would aspire to lofty ideals and felt that I was in a secret club that had seen a special thing that was reserved for only the wealthiest or most educated of people. This carried forward after attending catholic schools where, although I bucked the system and was always being opositional to rules, I retained the best that the education could offer which included the luxury of studying art history in the 9th grade, something I would take again in college and because I had that earlier education it came back readily as if it had been stored in a closet in my brain.
So here I would say give kids plenty of experiences to things outside their neighborhood, like downtown ballet and symphonies and book readings and movies that are a little avant garde in nature. You may be gifting them an opportunity to have an impression that could change their life.

2 comments:

Gramma Joan said...

Very interesting picture and comments. Going to a ballet at a young age made quite an impression on you I see. I too loved seeing professional musicals or dance shows. You get transported to another world for a few hours. Great memory!

Sandra said...

I really enjoyed reading this entry. I was never the one to follow a crowd either.

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