Beauty and Dance

I hadn't planned on writing tonight. But since I haven't posted anything in over a week, I thought I owed it to you, and to myself, to share certain things I pondered upon throughout the last few days. As the month has been going by, I've been thinking more and more about the concept of beauty. I had many ideas and opinions of what it could be, but it was only after watching Wim Wenders' Pina that it all fell into place. In fact, I realized that beauty goes way farther than appearance. It is something intangible that our mind creates. I believe there are two (or more) ways of seeing beauty. One is may be more instinctive and the other emotional.

On one hand, we might say beauty is a way to label things around us; to differ, for example, a good mate from a bad one. This instance is a concept that is, in some sorts, related to Darwin's theory of evolution. He believed biological characteristics change throughout many generations to ensure the survival of a specie. This "survival of the fittest" is maintained when strong gene pools are kept together. Therefore, it would be logical that, as primates, we choose a mate that is healthy and strong. In other words, beauty would be described as an innate mechanism to differentiate a good breeding partner from a less effective one.

As much as I believe this theory is logical, I do think there is a deeper, more philosophical aspect to this subject. I don't know if this ever happened to you, but sometimes, I feel in total awe of everything around me. It is as if beauty is a feeling that can constantly fluctuate. Everyone has there own way of experiencing how they feel; that might explain why we all see beauty differently. I say this, but I do think the use of the word "feeling" isn't totally on point. When watching the movie Pina, there were many dancers saying how Pina Bausch transcended beauty through her choreographies. This is something I relate to a lot, because, to me, the only way to translate the actual meaning of beauty is by dancing. While I dance, I translate my feelings and that to me is beautiful. Basically, beauty is something we develop throughout our lives and that might change through time. It is like a feeling, but never actually is one.

Essentially, I think the concept of beauty is separated into the innate notion of beauty and the emotional idea of beauty. I also think that what we consider as beautiful is highly influenced by society. Are things pretty because we think they are pretty, or because we were taught they were pretty? That is an other question I will answer another time though, but any way, some things will always be beautiful. Am I right?