Last night a friend and I were going to perform at a local open mic venue with our red noses, some songs, some dance, some paint, and lots of fun.  Only, we were exactly two seconds too late and the person in front of us was the last performer to sign up.

We had two options (at least) the first was to be devastated (which we were for a moment) and the second was to have fun anyways.  We opted for the second and set off to explore our local scene.   After some impromptu acapella performances and fascinating exchanges with people (a given when you’re in the nose), we found ourselves in the middle of a charged and raging drum circle.

I had met the main drum leader earlier in the evening and marveled at his enormous, powerful, and clearly symbolic necklaces earlier.   His presence and energy were both powerful and soothing.  I immediately jumped into the center of the circle and the conversation began.

I was feeding off of the drums and they were feeding off of me.  I absorbed and processed the information they were giving me through my body.  There were no bent pipes, nothing holding the energy back from being released.  Everything was free flowing from the beats, into me and back out again.

I didn’t feel self conscious, I wasn’t thinking about my “moves”, I was trusting the rhythm and I was free.  I was wearing this freedom boldly on my face in the form of a raging smile and I was communing with everyone in the room.

One of the best parts was when my flowing skirt started coming off.  A female drummer was concerned for me but I only smiled at her and showed her the shorts I had on underneath.  I laid my skirt on the corner of the room and went straight back to the center of the action.  It took me a moment to release tiny thoughts of self awareness that threatened to creep onto my body now that I had lost my flowy friend, but after becoming aware of these thoughts, I was able to let them go without drama.

I looked at my friend and co-red noser who was dancing in the back of the room and I was able to completely absorb the wild energy she was emitting and get over any inhibitions once again.  Finally, my red nose actually started coming off from all the gallivanting.  I very simply took it off and placed it on top of my skirt.  Now I was truly naked!  But without much ado, I was quickly back in the beautiful flow.

I understood very clearly last night why drumming was such an integral community event in many tribal communities for so long.  I remember hearing that a tribe in Africa had a word for a dancer who entered a trance and was one with the drums and the spirits.  This person had completely abandoned ego and had just let go.

We don’t have to do anything, we just need to let go and let it flow!

First story of the blog.
When I was in college I would go to parties and pretend I was drunk. There were several reasons for this facade:
1 - All parties served beer and at the time, fresh from Europe, I only drunk wine
2 - I had heard horror stories of girls who got abused while drunk, so I felt safer knowing I was sober
3 - I quickly noticed that if you did not drink, people thought you were strange. And well, at the time, I admit it, I wanted to fit in.
So I would hold a beer in my hand for the duration of the whole party and acted drunk. While this was originally for protection and conformity, it quickly became a very fun game. I realized that when you are drunk, people expect you to act strange. So I could dance funny, sing out of tune, tell bad jokes and every one thought it was perfectly normal. I even became quite a popular girl, always entertaining every one.
I had a blast. It was no longer about fitting in or passing time while no one was making sense. It was about the fun. It did not last long, may be a term or two, but it was what I needed at the beginning to gain enough confidence and be silly anyway, without a beer in my hand.

Below is a video of a guy who just shows us what silly dancing can look like .... all over the world!

What is the craziest thing you did to have fun at parties?