A dancer has costumes, makeup, and scenery but most impressive is his/her vocabulary of gestures. Slow body movements can mean seduction and passion, a gentle caress can signify tender feelings, tight fists can mean anger, and jumping or hopping up and down can signify excitement. Each facial expression and each movement are carefully and methodically planned out so the dancers can tell their story without saying a word. Isadora Duncan said it best, "If I could tell you what it meant, there would be no point dancing it."

No matter what country we live in we all have one common thread and that is dancing. It is an integral part of our lives and it gives us freedom to take great leaps of faith with no boundaries. Each culture has its own unique dance from swing, to jitterbug, to cha cha, and disco to tap, ballet, flamenco, rumba, ballroom and salsa, and many more.

Dance is a big festival of life's memories. A little girl will always remember dancing with her dad and a boy always remembers the first dance he had with that special girl. It is the first dance that a newly wed couple does before taking steps in life together. It is a dance a groom dances with his mom before taking a journey with his own family, and it a dance a bride shares with her father, before dancing into the rest of her life with the husband. We all remember Elvis shaking us up, Fred and Ginger twirling into our living rooms, Mikhail Baryshnikov leaping into thin air, Gene Kelly dancing in the rain, Gregory Hines tapping like only he could, and Judy Garland following her heart and the yellow brick road. Through good times and bad times we will always have the dance.

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