Shanghai, China and Fearlessness

I returned to this place a second time. I thought it was a joke when she mentioned the idea: “A Cat Themed Bachata Ladies Choreography Bootcamp.” As if the name itself wasn’t quirky enough, it encapsulated some of my all-time favorite things in one descriptive phrase. The promoter of the Shanghai Bachata Festival told me this in the car on our way through the hectic streets of Shanghai, China, swerving and diving in and out of fluctuations of traffic and chaos. She didn’t seem bothered by the chaos as she suggested a dream into existence that I didn’t think I had permission to have. These were the kinds of ideas I toyed with as a child, encouraging my Barbie dolls into kitty based storylines that made perfect sense in my Lisa-Frank influenced multiverse. It was a creative cocktail, an intoxicating combination of concepts that don’t normally live together, but, nevertheless, should.

I was there initially to teach a choreography workshop with my partner. We were hired to teach and perform bachata, a social dance form originating in the African rhythms of the Dominican Republic. This dance form held a history rich in a similarly unique mixture of cosmic juxtapositions. A musical and dance form birthed from displaced souls, colliding cultures, relentless expression, climactic heartbeats, tropical warmth, and fearless rhythm: this was a continuation of a “dream deferred” as Langston Hughes would posit.

I was asked to teach and share this tradition of dance in the form of a ladies styling challenge: a choreography meant to encourage female followers to build dance skill and creativity, without the traditional leading partner. The promoter of this event wanted to extend the creativity even more by inviting a fun-loving theme. As a dancer and teacher, I was thrilled by the invitation and proposal to empower women to find their dance voices by practicing different forms of bachata expression. As a woman, I was wrought with hesitation, recovering from heartbreak, and fighting to reconcile my own voice as parts of my life shifted into completely different dynamic.

Shanghai was also this rolling metropolis of dynamic and fearless possibilities. Situated in the central coast of China, it was hard to believe that I was in this powerful country’s largest city. I could smell the Szechuan smoke strolling the streets late at night with the street chefs, and marvel at the skyscrapers floating about the riverbed. This was a city that allowed me to indulge in my rose tea obsession, with heaps of dried rose petals at any local street market, and fascinated me with its ability to hold the large population in a delicate dance of carefully engineered infrastructure and creative architecture. I could witness the ebb and flow of residents weaving their lives together amongst the crowded sidewalks and still find seniors on their balconies sipping tea in the afternoon. This city was mesmerizingly complex.

I almost didn’t make it back to this city again to teach the complex dance challenge. I sustained a wrist and hand injury that could have prevented the entire presentation. Shanghai and its remarkable dancers had different plans for me. A group of 30 women from Shanghai and surrounding cities committed to learning a choreography vastly different from their previous exposure to the dance form. In the span of four days, many of these dancers overcame shyness, confusion, fatigue, and restlessness to bring the quirky and sensual choreography to the stage. As I encountered this fascinating city with renewed curiosity, they also courageously explored the intricacies of this choreography. We all managed to find a home in the unfamiliar.

They helped me understand how roses could dance in the fluttering steam of my hot tea, how these same roses could grow from concrete, and how these roses could create their own home. This city helped me understand that culture is not only something you collectively create, but something for which you fight. You fight even if your foe is your own fear: your misinformed sadness, your stifling shame, or your shortsighted resignation. This city knows many nights of triumph under its cloudy sky, where even the stars will find a way to reach out to you. Shanghai is a city of prevailing dreams.

Maybe your dreams don’t have to be put on hold. Maybe you are waiting on your creative heart to build an adventure out of a challenge: to craft a sculpture, choreography, architecture, song, or dance of triumph. Perhaps, you only need to look beyond the riverbed of your fear to create possibility through a different truth.