I want to dance like Louise LeCavalier

 

She flamed across stage

When I was fresh out from ballet

With the whisper of a spectre

Released from its chains

She took my breath up

In her pale hands

And threw it

Past the stars

 

In every leap, twist, thrown and tumbled

I wanted to stand up in the aisles and shout, ‘My God!

This girl is just like me!’

Dancing with the passion and

Power of a man in a feminine world

Ripped in muscle

From heavy industrial cylinders

In grace

Fluid through the languished restraints

Of pink corsetry.

 

Her red lips pressed in smile

Enigmatic like a Da Vinci Phial

 

She took the word dancer,

burnt it out of the dictionary

And in careful choreography,

kicked that book up

With trick keep ups

Like a right foot midfielder from Brazil

Making poetry of football

 

I saw her lick flesh wounds

And sew desire.

A pioneer beyond barriers

In Canada

I want to swim in those waters

And drink the breath

That made a girl fly

And all those big hard boys cry

 

Ive always danced like Louise LeCavalier

 

We feel movement dual gendered, she and I

And transpose the power of

Our loins

Into a creature of peace, wrapped in sweat

And give birth to release, the fire inside.