How did I ever let so much time go by before blogging about this? I went out of town, that’s why. Plumb forgot. Did you attend the gloATL show at the Woodruff Arts Center? If so, we may have danced together when they played Janelle Monae’s Tightrope at the end.

The show, called Roem, took interactive art to a whole new level for me. Leaping, turning, and gyrating across the Arts Center campus, this incredibly talented group of performers danced from the early evening until the sun went down. The crowed ebbed and flowed following the mini-performances. They were in trees, on ladders, stacked on top of each other, and – surprise! – right behind you. Their focus did not break. Nobody passed out from the heat. and it was HOT. Like Biblical, hot. It was phenomenal.

Why? Why dance for several hours in !$*@% humidity for a crowd of people off of Peachtree Road? Because sometimes the relationship between “artist” and “audience” needs redefining. Because sometimes, not knowing or understanding is healthy. Because sometimes, in the faces of such youthful determination and in the strength of bodies committed to mastering an art form, you can see the best there is in human beings.

And because sometimes, it takes a heavy-breathing, glistening with sweat dancer hovering next to you, but not really seeing you, to remind you that we’re not so different after all.