8.25.2005

At a loss, for once

I’ve now seen two performances of traditional Ethiopian dancing, and I keep meaning to write them up, but each time I sit down to do it I’m faced with the fact that this phenomenon is beyond my power to describe. It’s so utterly strange and mesmerizing and impossible—and here I don’t mean how fast they can shake their hips or anything like that, no, this is an entirely different realm of moving the body to rhythm—and I honestly can’t do it even the barest justice with written words. I will work on it, but perhaps you should do your own research first if you are curious. Particularly the dancing from the Oromia region.