Why?
Because I’m alive
Because I’m a flame
On a candle
That I light on Friday night
To keep away the evil spirits
And I’m moving
To keep away the evil spirits
The ones that wait to pray on my body
Self-loathing
Self-pity
The desire to make myself disappear
Like so many girls do
When they don’t realize what a gift they have
In their undulating limbs
Do?
Because I want to move
Because I feel my soul connecting to the music
And at that moment I realize
That G-d created the world with a word
And the word had a tune
And that was why
Miriam had to sing at the sea
Because she saw the wonder of G-d
And she had to speak back in the same language
The language of prayer
That every child knows
Before she even learns to speak
When her mother croons to her
While she’s kicking in the womb
Orthodox?
It’s the covenant
Between my body and G-d
That gave me my body on loan
And told me to enjoy it
To use it
I will not be embarrassed of this gift
I will not wish it away
I will move with it
I will celebrate it
I will spin and turn with holy words
Like the women who danced on Tu Ba’av
When they were so full of holiness
That they didn’t care who saw them
Because it didn’t matter
And that’s why the men fell in love with them
I am trying to regain that holiness
To swim back into the souls
Of those dancing women
Girls?
Because I’m a woman
Because my body moves
Like no man’s ever can
Because no man knows
What it’s like to be in my body
They will never have that joy
No man knows
What it’s like to feel and smell life
Every month
When I remember
That my body is a vessel
Dance?
Because it’s not about sex
And it’s not about who sees me
It’s about blessing
And spinning it around my body
Moving like water
To drink up the world around me
Swallow the words of G-d
Make them a part of me
With?
I am together
I am a we
We are a continuum
We started with Eve
And we live through each other
Through every woman that has been
Through every women that will be
They are dancing with me
We are dancing
Their?
We know the moves
Because our bodies have moved them before
In a hundred lives
Of a hundred women
Who came before us
And came after us
And writhe
To a hundred different sounds
That say one word
Eyes?
I can’t see what you’re doing
And you can’t see me
And we can’t see who’s watching
So we don’t have to care anymore
And we can just pretend
That there’s nobody here
And we are the only ones
Closed?
When my eyes are closed
I am alone with my body
And alone with G-d
