Dancing Celebrates Life

At left, reaching up to catch Megan, is Greg Waleski. On the right, having just thrown Megan, is Larry Lee VanHorne. The moment is from a piece called “Unstuck”, choreographed by the late Sam Costa, somewhere around 1993.

Dancing celebrates life. Sharing life. Friendships. Trust.

Megan Flood, the dancer soaring through the air from one dancer to another, is my daughter. I think she began dancing in the womb. I know she began dancing as soon as she could stand, holding on to a chair, bending her knees, bouncing up and down, grinning.

Megan studied dance at St. Olaf College and then auditioned to become a member of the amazing Zenon Dance Company.  This modern dance company nurtured young dancers through classes, scholarship programs, and working directly with students at many schools in Minnesota and across the nation—even internationally. Zenon dancers encouraged confidence and risk-taking, movement and expression, to young and old, of all abilities and ages. The night I will never forget is one particular performance on the tropical Pacific Island of Saipan (near Guam).

Zenon dancers had worked with several schools including a class of children who were deaf or hard of hearing. All the children loved it! Then the children performed together on stage. Their excitement and joy was contagious. The audience asked for an encore. The familiar music began again. All the children began dancing. But it was an encore, just a sample. The music stopped. The children who could hear, stopped. The children who were deaf continued dancing. We all stood and applauded, crying and laughing together. So beautiful, sharing the joy of dance.