Shall We Dance?

Imagine that I am offered, by God, another life and any gift I want: wealth, power, good looks, athleticism, intelligence or whatever. I know exactly what I would choose: to be able to dance like Fred Astaire, with Ginger Rogers, of course. In the history of this created universe (I cannot speak for alternate universes or a multiverse!), there never was and never will be anything quite like these two dancing together. Lightness: when they move together, there is a miraculous, even supernatural lightness that is simply heavenly. The normal rules of nature, the gravity and heaviness of the material, the antagonism between body and soul, flesh and spirit...all of this is suspended and we witness the wedding of the heavenly and the earthly, the material and the spiritual, the masculine and the feminine, and the love embrace of intellect, passion, will, spirit and all that is carnal. Their movement, together, quintessentially represents the Catholic vision of reality: the Theology of the Body; flesh as expressive of spirit; the beatific, nuptial and expressive purpose of the sexual, gendered, humble yet splendid human form. They show us what it was like, before sin, when Adam and Eve walked and talked and sang and danced with God at twilight in the Garden. They show us something of the bodily splendor that Jesus and Mary share today in heaven and (in hidden, and yet manifest manner) on earth. They show us our carnal identity and destiny. They inspire us to open our hearts and minds and bodies to the love that infuses the universe; to steadily if slowly become gracious, free and light. Their professional partnership was fluid, fruitful and inspired by heaven. Apparently, their personal relationship was loving, joyous and reverent, but also dense, intense, and complex: not without the tensions of sexual-romantic attraction, professional rivalry, and class dissonance (Rogers was higher on the ladder.)But when they danced, it was heaven on earth, for them and for viewers of every generation. That he was older, and not classically handsome or sexy, enhanced and elevated the romantic erotic dimension, freeing it of libidinal tension and gravity. He is masculine as wise, experienced, sober, fatherly, transcendent, admiring, directive, confident and strong. This paternal-and-yet-romantic balance seemed to liberate in her a feminine, filial trust; a serenity and innocence; graciousness, spontaneity and fluidity. Effortlessly, she becomes docile, receptive and responsive to his admiration and delight (as we are all invited to be in relation to our heavenly Father and Spouse.) As in traditional portrayals of the virgin Mary and the older, fatherly Joseph, eros attains new depth, richness,intensity and range as it it sublimated into chaste, paternal-filial tenderness and loyalty. God bless Fred and Ginger and us all!