a pair of window

a pair of window

shade pulls -- wrapped, knotted, looped -- cast

shadows on the wall

It's Friday and I'm waiting in the Sunset Room at Morningstar Studio for our weekly English country dance session to begin. The walls are covered with paintings and drawings of nudes, but I've looked at them many times. Instead, my eyes are drawn to a pair of window shade pulls. Someone tied the cords together, accidentally creating an artistic effect, especially with the overhead spotlights casting multiple shadows on the graceful curves. The texture of the twined cords contrasts with the smooth plastic of the grips, and the texture of the stucco on the wall contrasts with the smooth wood of the wainscot. English country dance is like that, a play of opposites. At the beginning of the dance, two lines of dancers face each other, like the straight pair of window shade pulls. When the music starts, the dancers begin to move around each other: up a double, arm right, siding, set and turn single, circle to the right, star left, gypsy right, back to back, double figure eight. The movements are visible but the patterns are like shadows cast on the dance floor, ephemeral, yet real. If you hover above the dancers, you will see the forms flowing, looping, curving back.