Originally Posted by Andrea Deagon

One of the parts of Racy's work that particularly interested me was his discussion of the relationship between musicians and "good listeners," ones who were able to appreciate the music and reach the state of tarab easily. He also spoke of the jalsah, or small musical gathering, where socializing would lead to music making but everyone there knew they were really there to experience tarab, and that was what happened. He did present it as something that could be counted on to happen.

I wish we dancers would do something like that. I am on hiatus from professional performing right now, and not sure if I'll go back to it. But I'm dancing beautifully, if I do say so myself. I would love to go to a gathering of dancers where the expectation was that we would all dance as the mood took us, and reach this state of tarab both as watchers and as performers. I think a dance version of the jalsah would be a wonderful change from the seminar show (where we see each other) and restaurant show (where we have to be careful about distracting people too much from their dinners), which are where most performing opportunities lie. I also find that the experience of tarab is elusive and ephemeral, but if we cultivated all of our dancing to feel and share it, and to reach it through the dancing of others as well, maybe we would find it more reliable. But we don't tend to use our energies in this way, more's the pity.