Toes

Last night, I attended a performance by the Martha Graham Dance Company. Since I'm not very well versed in modern dance, I relied on the program to inform me. I learned that Martha Graham's dance and choreography were all about "exposing the depths of human emotion through movements that were sharp, angular, jagged, and direct."

Watching the dancers use every single sinewy muscle and ligament in their body, I was mesmerized. I became transfixed on their feet, noticing the way their toes gripped the floor, or one another's bodies.

The last performance featured a dancer costumed in virginal white. Much of her time on stage was spent teetering on one leg -- and I do mean teetering, because she didn't have the rock-solid balance of the other dancers. Maybe she was having an off night, but watching her reminded me of just how hard all of these dancers were working, and how incredibly easy they all made it look.

Her trembling was ironically fitting for the piece, which (according to the program) was meant to express the "quick joy and quick sadness of being in love for the first time." As she wobbled, my vision became myopic and the stage narrowed to just a small circle of light trained on her toes. She needed every single millimeter of each of those ten digits to stay balanced, and even then she swayed.

Right now, I feel like I might be missing a few toes.