A Danser

Daphne Lee, Alvin Ailey Dance Company

*(c) Alvin Ailey Dance Company

no copyright infringement intended

"While I dance I cannot judge, I cannot hate.

I cannot separate myself from life.

I can only be joyful and whole.

This is why I dance."

- Hans Bos

Dance (ballet in particular) is a huge part of my spiritual, artistic and emotional life (for backstory see here)...

Plie, Adagio, Reverence - every movement, every moment of Ballet is a revelation. A ballerina, whatever her level of skill, is intimately connected to her inner and outer selves. The physical movements required for ballet requires the dancer to completely focus on her body - her breathing, her carriage, her center. Whatever is worrying you is blocked from your mind - you're too busy regulating your breathing, pulling up, turning out, and pointing your toes as hard as you can (all at the same time!) Ballet is as close to Zen as a person can get - heaven!

Tragically, for a while now, my life has not allowed me to attend ballet class. I'm not complaining - I am blessed to live an amazing life, but I miss it so! Still, I continue to find inspiration and strength in the phenomenal photographs and the live and taped performances I see/experience.

Alongside Paris and my photography, ballet (dance) feeds my soul - how could I not create a section especially dedicated to the beauty, strength, and inspiration that is embodied in dance? Thus, I'm pleased to add A Danser to Pour l'Amour de Paris.

A Danser is simple in its complexity - a single photo and an inspirational quote. To encourage you to dance (literally and figuratively), to bring the joy and serenity (to be found in dance) into your everyday life.

Be joyful, be whole - dance.

Vivre! Rire! Aimer!

Temple @ ballet class, circa 2000

Photographer: Denise Laurin

*As you know, I am very sensitive to respecting the copyright(s) of artists (see my experience here). So I want to make it very clear - this section will feature the amazing, breathtaking photography of several artists - for inspiration. I will clearly credit each and every photograph (photographer I feature in this section). My hope is that you will contact the company and/or photographer and buy their work, for your very own - I know that I will ;-} 

**To the artists, whose work I will share in this section. It is my humble intention to share your gorgeous, amazing work with my readers. I will always credit you, and include a link to your site (of course I invite you to share your site web-addresses with me, so that I can happily pass them along to my readers. But if you do not want me to include your images here, as Pour l'Amour de Paris, let me know and I will immediately remove them. That said, thank you for your inspirational art!