The Dancing Queen

If you didn’t get a chance to watch Kim Yu-Na win her gold medal in figure skating, find it on Youtube or NBC online. I, along with everyone else, hoped the best female skater in the world could deliver. Actually, I hoped everyone in the top six could do their best to make it a fair fight. And more or less, they did. There were some other wonderful skaters; one even completed a more complicated jump than Kim.

But Kim won by a huge margin.

And well deserved. She had it all. Technically competent of course. Speed, yes. Choreography, superb. Her movements were all finished right down to her fingertips; I don’t think I’ve ever seen a skater use their hands quite so beautifully. She herself is a lovely woman and wore the perfect costume.

But there is something else Kim Yu-Na has. I’ve seen “it” before. When I watch a crowd of dancers my eyes are drawn to those couple who have “it.” The dancers I enjoy obviously know how to dance, but my favorites always have something special, a sparkle that sets them apart. After seeing Kim skate last night I believe I understand it. They are tapping into the very essence of what they are doing. While Kim was skating I could see in her face she loved the music; every arc of her arm and tilt of her head interpreted the character she represented. She was lost in the performance, she was the performance. It was her individual expression, yet it was also a shared gift to her audience.

I felt the same way about Shawn White’s gold medal snowboard performance. Snowboarding is nothing like figure skating. But he has the same passion for his art as Kim does. His face is his blissful even when flying high over the half pipe.

You can call it whatever you want: touching nirvana, inspiration, passion, joy, love, Chevy Chase’s “be the ball”, the hand of god, the collective unconscious, whatever, but we all recognize it. When someone performs like that it reaches something deep, something primal, in all of us.

There are other Olympic examples, these two were my favorite. They have both inspired me even more to express who I am and how I feel in my dancing. I will never do a triple lutz or stand on a snowboard, let alone attempt any “tricks.” I will most likely never win a national dance competition. But I can be the best me I can possibly be, and more importantly, I can be unafraid to put it out there.

Thanks Kim Yu-Na. I am a better person because of your beautiful gift to the world. You are indeed the Queen.



You are the dancing queen, young and sweet, only seventeen
Dancing queen, feel the beat from the tambourine
You can dance, you can jive, having the time of your life
See that girl, watch that scene, dig in the dancing queen