Hoof Dance

[wampus-cat.livejournal.com]

Just a blurb I wrote last week about one of my possibly ungulate-y behaviors. :)

The urge is back, overwhelming. It feels every fiber of my being, from my scalp down to my toenails, eyes shut in spontaneous meditative concentration. I run, upper body ducked down at the waist, arms swung out and stiff. I throw my head back, spring off my heels, and leap through the air, landing back to my soles with bent knees. I spring forward, run, then leap again.

This is how I dance.

I’ve been doing this dance for about as long as I can remember, perplexing and amusing and disturbing my parents, siblings, friends in the process. I don’t know exactly why I do it, where it started, but this behavior is an ingrained part of my self-expression and release. I do it when I’m excited, when I daydream, when I’m happy, even when I‘m anxious or tense. It’s not completely spontaneous or uncontrollable- I never do it in public places, for example, and I can sometimes release the feeling with pacing; this, however, is a poor substitute. The only way to truly satisfy the urge is the Dance.

It is a dance of ungulates, a Hoof Waltz. The closest comparison- truly THE equivalent- is the bucking of a horse or stot leap of an antelope, an ungulate running and leaping and kicking out in play, or popping up in alert display. It is a possible clue to my identity. It reminds me of both my body and my mind. When soaring, I am grounded.

I remember doing this dance around my Italian grandmother when I was a child of seven or eight. Unlike my other family members, who teased my leaps of faith in bemusement, she knew what it was.

“Katie, let me dance with you!“

If at the time I had the sense of mind or the awareness of self-identity that I possess now, I would have turned to her and proclaimed, “Yes Grandma, and I am an animal!”, and she would smile, and I would laugh like children are wont to do and continue to jump and run and be free.

And I still dance. At the end of the day, alone after hours of civility and control and interaction with people far more than my feline-bovine-human self can handle, I dance. It is release.

Comments

[aloiis.livejournal.com]

Thanks, that was a nice read even though I can't relate much. ^^ Maybe other ungulates will have things to say.

[wampus-cat.livejournal.com]

:3

[fleetfoot77.livejournal.com]

Sprinting, running is like this to me.

Good to hear from you.

[wampus-cat.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I'm always interested to hear about shared behaviors/feelings between animal people, especially when there's a difference in theriotype.

[tawncherie.livejournal.com]

I adore something about this, perhaps the sort of nostalgia it invokes, but it's so short, and so simple, yet so effective, personally. And I can really picture the dance, as gawky and odd as it might look. But in a way it's kind of romantic. In a way the simplicity is beautiful, if that's not to bold to suggest.