The Dancer

The hero|ine's journey #2

I have only ever been to the ballet once. I was in Paris and severely jet-lagged. It was at the Grand Opera - a magnificently ornate setting for any performance. I don’t remember much about the actual performance, except for the incredible freedom of the dancers’ movements. It seemed so effortless.

But dancing is anything but effortless. The thing that makes that effortless freedom so impressive is the way that it reflects absolute mastery of the body and its movement.

This character - the Dancer - is important in both Nietzsche’s philosophy and the philosophy of medieval Indian tantrism. Last week we looked at a different character - the Sailor. The Sailor is free to explore new worlds, experiment with life, break the rules.

The Dancer is also free, but in a different way. The Dancer can’t break the rules. Gravity remains. The limits of the body remain. Instead, the Dancer overcomes the rules through absolute mastery.

And so the Dancer is both completely free and ultimately constrained.