CriticalDance Forum

cantata, symphonata, sonata
you gotta

move your feet
don't be discrete
it's quite a treat

can be so neat


can be as wonderful as it seems

to dance a love song with your dreams

Aimie has just written another poem and once again insists that it be posted immediately--if not sooner !


fly fly
so imaginarily towards the sky
my oh my
be my lullaby

two grand jumps en arriere
now that is really worth a cheer

arriere is backward
it's a dance word

so now you know
while straight ahead we go
to our here we go dance show

by the way
would you like to play
i can hum a song
will you dance along

sun's shining
snow is fining
no declining
if you'll be mine all mining

It's A Beautiful Winter's Day


It's been reported that Beau-Le-Soleil Dancing Wood Nymphs may have been sighted this year.

Beau-Le-Soleil Dancing Wood Nymphs as you may recall are beautiful young maidens who dance through the countryside and sometimes are even seen dancing in the parks. They are particularly noticeable in winter, when they light up the wonderful winter snowscapes with warmth and brightness and cheer.

Of coarse only children can see them.

Some say that Beau-Le-Soleil was actually founded by the Dancing Wood Nymphs long long ago. It makes sense since everyone in Beau-Le-Soleil loves to dance and everyone in Beau-Le-Soleil loves to be a little child.

They also say that Anna Pavlova, the wonderful, wonderful dancer (now she's the overhead Anna Pavlova Dancing Star(?) ), is a direct descendant of the Dancing Wood Nymphs.

This winter in front of every little child's door in Beau-Le-Soleil was found a brand new pair of dancing shoes !


winter dancing this year just seems to be more fantabulously, cheerily, joyably
than usually
dancing kangaroosilly
and most enthusilly !

Now all the trees on Sesame Street are all lit up.

The snow is sparkling.
The stars are sparkling.
Your eyes are sparkling.
and most of all....

Your Heart Is Sparkling !

such a wonderful calm felt

looking at the unbroken blanket of fresh glistening snow
bluishly lit
made poetry with long extended brushstrokes
of soft afternoon shadows

a soulful whisper


a tree overhead
with sunlit snow covering it's branches
with a golden-lit crown of delicate tracery
a sculpture of rhythm
a dance of light suspended in time


aimie is looking dreamily from her windowsill


when i've finished my nap, she says,

i'd really, really love to dance

Aimie's Lullaby


"When I've finished my nap, said Aimie, I'd really, really love to dance."


"And so you shall, my precious child," says the Anna Pavlova Dancing Star in a starlit whisper, as she looks down from a glittering sky overhead.


It's another magnificent silver-lit snow-covered day as daylight fades.

The silver-light of the day is carried over to the sparkling smiling eyes of all the children as they anxiously rush along the snow covered walkways to the Crystal Palace Dance Theater to see tonight's grand performance.


Tonight Aimie, the world famous Five-Year-Old choreographer and Tuesday-Two-Step dancer, is making her official stage debut.


She is appearing in her own new creation----" Aurora's Four-Door-Ah! "----a fable about a spiffy teen-age princess who dreams about getting her first super four-door sports car and gets a glass tennis shoe instead.


" Happy Endings Abound By The Hundreds In This High Art Extravaganza ! "

(Animal--"The Sesame Street Don't Delete Reading And Wrapping Paper Review")


Brightly colored children hurry to the theater.

run, dance, slide
monkey-glide

they hurry inside

Inside the world famous lollipop colored venetian crystal chandeliers are shining brightly.

Tonight partnering Aimie will be her Five-Year-Old twin brother, Ami.

Assisting Aimie and Ami will be the entire Kirov-Mariinsky Ballet Company.

Also flying in and assisting will be the Bolshoi Ballet, Paris Opera House Ballet, Royal Ballet, American Ballet Theater, New York City Ballet, Royal Danish Ballet and many others. It is rumored that the Big Bird Big Band Muppet Ballet and Break Dance Company will also make a surprise appearance.

Veronika Symphonica will be dancing alongside Aimie duplicating her every move, so that everyone sitting in back can see what's happening.


The theater lights dim.

The front of the stage reserved for all the children's teddy bears is completely full.

The Celestial Clown Clog Dancers take to the stage.

Aimie runs on stage and sails into the arms of Nikolai Handsome, last minute replacement for that ever-so-sunny-weather match making twin brother, Ami.

The audience applauds merrily, giggly, irish jiggily !



Aimie looks up to the sky through the clear venetian-structural crystal roof and waves lovingly to the best friend that anyone could hope to have.

The Anna Pavlova Dancing Star in the beautiful still silver-lit winter sky above is overcome with joy.


No more need for house lights tonight. The starlit sky fills the theater !

We ran out of the house and jumped into the snow. We rolled around. We threw armfuls of snow into the air and watched the wind carry it high into the sky and far away. We watched all the different shapes that it made as it flew away.

We sat in the snow and packed a wall all around us to keep us warm. We laid on the snow inside the wall and watched the sky. The sun was going in and out of the clouds. We made up a story about the clouds. We imagined children playing in the clouds like we were playing in the snow. It must be so beautiful and sunny up there in the clouds. What great hills they would make to play on.

We built a snowman.

We looked over to our house. Our sister was dancing in the window. She dances so beautifully and is so great to watch. She's so graceful. She dances like the snow that we throw into the air and watch sail away.

We built an arm on our snowman to wave to our sister. She jumped up smiling and waved back. Then she started dancing again. She loves to dance.


It's beginning to snow now. It looks as graceful as our sister when she's dancing.


It's great to play in the snow....and have a sister who loves to dance.

A Painting--A Dance



Aimie and Ami just won first prize in the Beau-Le-Soleil Art Contest for their finger painting, "The Air Is Dancing". The prize is a free flight to Sesame Street to visit the Museum Of Modern Art.



They walk through the museum looking at all the wonderful paintings that seem to be dancing on the walls.


A little voice in a little talking box that you put up to your ear says,

"One of the great pleasures of cubist paintings is that they are thrilling fields for visual investigation."


"Look carefully at this one".


" It Will Set Your Mind Free To Wander"



"Our minds are always wandering", says Ami to Aimie.


Aimie and Ami stand in front of a cubist painting. The little voice in the talking box that you put up to your ear says that these are "planes that tilt according to tonal transition."

Aimie and Ami watch the planes as they seem to move backward and forward and change from planes to a human form and back to planes again all piled on top of each other.

A mother with a baby carriage piled up with cube-like children's toys walks in front of them. A baby sits on top. "This looks just like the painting", says Ami to Aimie.

Aimie and Ami gaze around the room. There are folks walking all over looking like planes moving back and forth in a cubist painting, like colors moving around, like forms changing shapes. Aimie and Ami look from painting to painting, from room to room, from style to style, from world to world.

Looking out the big square windows as big square buildings look in. Looking out the big square windows between the big square buildings to the streets full of life flowing in all directions.


"This Is Like A Big Dance Party !"


says Aimie to Ami.


"This Is Really Fun !".


All the different paintings on the wall are reflecting all the viewers who are looking at them. Every painting is a world of wonder in a frame. So many different minds thinking so many different things.

"I like this one!" "What's this?" These are such famous paintings !" "But I can't stand still !" "Can you see the inner meaning?" "Take my picture with this one". "Oh, that's so beautiful !"


A little girl is sitting next to Aimie and Ami absorbed in listening to a tape-recorded explanation that she probably wouldn't understand in a language that she doesn't speak. She is having a wonderful time.

Ballerina Flowers


* The Countryside Is A Brilliant Galaxy Of *Wildflowers* This Year *


There are carpets of Lemon-Yellow Wildflowers as far as you can see.

Below them are solid carpets of tiny White and Bright Yellow flowers.

There are splashes of Blue and Violet.

And there is beautiful Orange scattered throughout.


"Look at these Larger Flowers," said Ami to his five-year-old twin sister, Aimie. "They are everywhere and they are So Beautiful!"

"They have dozens of pearl-smooth daisy-like petals and

Large Centers


* Bright Lemon-Yellow----Beaming Like Radiant Smiles *


Outside they are Light Lemon-Yellow, blending all their inner sunshine with all the sunshine that embraces them."

"They must be Ballerina Flowers," said Aimie. "They look just like ballerinas' beautiful dancing skirts----What Beautiful Colors !"



"And look at all these tiny Yellow and White Flowers. They are everywhere too!", said Ami. "They Are No Bigger Than My Fingertips And The Little White Flowers Are Really Dozens Of Little Starflowers In A Ball!"


"The Yellow ones are the corps de ballet," said Aimie, "and the White ones are the little children dancing."

"The Blue and Violet ones are the solo dancers and the bright Orange ones are the character dancers."

"The gentle Breeze is the Music."

"The Beautiful Fragrance is The Smile inside all dancers that makes them want to dance."


"Look at the beautiful Butterflies!" said Ami.

"They are the Prima Ballerinas!", exclaimed Aimie.


"And the Rocky Hills that are everywhere, they are where I can sit and see everything while I write and direct my dances," said Ami. "The audience can sit there too."

"They are where I can climb to the sky when I am dancing," said Aimie. "They are the lifts."


"And these Beautiful Flowers Standing By Themselves?", asked Ami.

"They are the Muses," said Aimie.



"Someday I want to write a ballet," said Ami, "just about----


* Flowers *


"And I want to dance each one of them", said Aimie.

" Even More Than That----I Just Want To Love Them ! "



[a few words changed here and there]

drops of water in a mountain brook


as delicate as the steps of a meadow-nymph dancing


mountains with shrub-like carpeting transformed by a tropical mist into a horizon of lush greenness

rich painted strokes of earthly goldenness across the landscape

saturated mountain valleys as expansive as the imagination


a marvel of changing light and color

nature's magnificent dance


flowers so individually delicate and beautifully musical in their earth-top sculpture gardens


single towering stalks with touches of bright yellow blossoms overhead

flowercoverings of yellow and white and lavender

century plants, wallflowers, rock flowers and mountain lilac


that make the heart step and fly so smilingly


that make the senses want to dance

Walking through the park

Memories of angel-like beings still dancing in my head

Everything is clear and musical

The heart is warm and the mind has set sail on a gentle breeze

Inner currents of air guide each step

Lightness, lightness, lightness

Everything is lightness



Dreams of walking along mountain ridges

Through lush flower covered meadows

Regarding the infinite peace of the golden expanses from which these summits rise

The sun and the clouds compose their rhythmic symphonies

While each imagined footstep moves in a musical embrace


Children skip and jump

They dance and dance and dance


Forms and images are dancing by

Enough to keep a poet writing for a lifetime

If not for the need to dance and dance and dance


A voice in the park whispers

Will you dance with me



Little children appear and disappear among the trees


May I have this dance

Asks five-year-old Ami to his five-year-old twin sister Aimie


Of coarse you can, dear sir, she responds

As she puts down the book that she was reading


"The Teddy Bear's Guide To Dancing And Daydreaming For Five-Year-Olds"

Smile and smile and smile some more
The music plays your favorite score

You clap your hands with such delight
That you alight and your heart takes flight

Lean way back, then touch the sky
You can fly, you can fly, you can fly, you can fly

Can you hear the whisper of your soul
A warmth inside, that' s quite a goal

Now here's an idea that makes me glad
With your idea, more joy we add

A weightless leap across the floor
It makes you feel good, that's what it's for

As gentle as a butterfly's wing
Your arms can glide, your hands can sing

Our hearts set sail, our minds romance
It's lots of fun and we call it dance

From Aimie and Ami's "Book of Poems and Verses".


a smile
a wave of your hand

dancing feet
dancing hearts

so much joy to share

living in a smile


*****

*Sunshine-Over-The-Rainbow* Dances


She dances


To express Beauty

To express Joy


This is why she loves to dance



*****

the most beautiful flower in the world
sat on the side of the hill today

it was exactly the same as a thousand other flowers on the side of the hill
but today it was the most beautiful flower that i've ever seen

can you dance standing still

this flower did


*******

* Aimie And Ami's Dance Garden *


Most folks want to grow roses or orchids in their gardens.

Aimie and Ami grow Dances.

They have grown some absolutely beautiful waltzes.
They have grown some elegant ballets.
Their lyrical dances are a dream.

They have also grown some really goofy "penguin-wobbles"
and "kangaroo-boogaloos"----too!

Their "natural-flows" and "soul-light-glows"
have all been adored at the dance garden shows.



"What will we try and grow next?", asks Ami.

"How about some "happiness-glides"
and some "more-joy-besides","
says Aimie.

"With some "sing-through-the-hills"
and some "heart-warming-thrills"

what a happily beautiful garden we'll have," says Ami.