A moment of dance is like 1)droplets of water thrown on a very hot grill. There’s a bounce and a 2)hiss and then the water has evaporated， leaving no 3)imprint of its existence.

Dance is a 4)one-off art form; no two performances of the same 5)choreography will ever be exactly the same. All that’s left for the watcher is the memory of a feeling the dancers aroused in you. Dance is not like a poem or a painting or a book that one can return to， and a video can never capture the magic of a live performance that touched the heart.

A piece of music can evoke， in 6)Proustian fashion， the moving images of a dance and the feeling that it inspired. A touchstone moment in dance comes back for me every time I hear [1]Ray Charles singing 7)Ruby. It was to this song that 8)David Earle created a modern dance 9)pas de deux， a waltz really， for Barry Smith and Helen Jones in his Ray Charles 10) Suite， first performed in 1973.

I saw them perform it in about 1976， at the 11)MacMillan Theatre. She wore a long 12)satin gown. He wore white tie and tails. It was， and is， a perfect 13)invocation of pure， mutual adoration.

In memory， they danced beneath a dark blue evening sky dotted with sparkling stars. To a young person very much in love， the dance expressed everything that romance could be. The vision of that idealized couple went down deep and remained in the subconscious， the way dance does. A 14)kinetic art， providing a 15)vicarious physical pleasure， dance is received in a more 16)visceral way than a picture or a piece of music.

The couple is the essential unit in Western forms of dance， whether it be ballet or modern， social dance or competitive ballroom activity.

Much begins with the waltz (from the Italian “volver” to turn or revolve)， a dance that came out of Vienna in the 18th century and for a long time retained its power to 17)scandalize with its 18)sensuality and the fact that couples embraced while doing it.

The waltz， like much of 19th-century ballet， has always been about romantic love. Waltz music could never be used， except ironically， as the 19)soundtrack to a conflict.

Many years after the first hearing， [2]Leonard Cohen’s lyrics—after [3]Federico García Lorca’s poem Little Viennese Waltz—can still set couples to 20)swooning or make one 21)ache for a 22)spin round the room. “And I’ll dance with you in Vienna/I’ll be wearing a river’s disguise/The 23)hyacinth wild on my shoulder，/My mouth on the dew of your thighs.”

On that indelible night long ago at 24)Toronto Dance Theatre， Barry and Helen 25)instilled in me a passion for dance， especially dance about 26)passion. [4]Fred Astaire and [5]Ginger Rogers， [6]Gene Kelly and [7]Leslie Caron， tango couples and 27)Kathak couples， salsa couples and ice-dancing pairs: they are all inspired by 28)Eros.

When 29)Peggy Baker and 30)Michael Sean Marye performed 31)James Kudelka’s duet A Woman By a Man a few months ago， they brought back that feeling that David Earle projected with his Ruby dance. There’s nothing quite so thrilling as two bodies moving in total 32)synch with each other and with the music.

On that same MacMillan stage last month， 33)Mark Morris Dance Group paid glorious tribute to the waltz and to couples of all kinds—male/female， male/male and female/female—with his 34)Liebeslieder-Walzer， set to the music of Romantic composer [8]Johannes Brahms.

Morris seemed to have taken his cue from Cohen: “Take this waltz， take this waltz/It’s yours now. It’s all that there is.”

舞蹈中的瞬間就宛如被甩到炙熱的烤架上的水滴，猛地一下，嘶嘶一響，水滴就蒸發(fā)了，絲毫沒有留下它曾經存在過的痕跡。

舞蹈是一次性的藝術形式——就算是同一種舞蹈編排也不會有兩次完全相同的表演。惟獨觀者會銘記舞者在自己心里激起的那種情感。舞蹈不像詩歌、繪畫、書籍那樣可以查找、翻看，即使錄像也永遠無法捕捉現(xiàn)場表演那觸動心靈的魅力。

一段音樂能讓人生動地回想起一段舞蹈的動態(tài)畫面，并感受到隨舞而至的情感。每次我聽到雷·查爾斯唱的《魯比》，舞蹈那瞬間的觸動就會重現(xiàn)于我的腦海。大衛(wèi)·厄爾就是根據這首歌為巴里·史密斯和海倫·瓊斯編排了雙人現(xiàn)代舞《雷·查爾斯組曲》——應該說是一段華爾茲，這段舞蹈在1973年首次上演。

我于1976年在麥克米倫劇院看到了他們的演出。當時，她身穿緞面長裙，他則穿著燕尾服，系著白色蝴蝶領結。那段舞蹈在當時是對純潔的相互愛慕的完美祈求，直到今天依然如此。

在我記憶中，他們在繁星滿天的深藍色夜空下起舞。對一個沐浴在愛河中的年輕人來說，這段舞蹈是浪漫的終極表達。那天設地造的一對，其舞影給我留下深深的印記，并一直留在我的腦海深處，如同舞蹈本身給我的觸動一樣。舞蹈是一種用自己的舞姿讓他人陶醉的動感藝術。與一幅畫或一段音樂相比，欣賞舞蹈更需要從內心深處開始。

在西方的舞蹈形式里，不管是芭蕾、現(xiàn)代舞、社交舞，還是競技性交誼舞，雙人舞是必不可少的元素。

華爾茲（華爾茲一詞來自意大利語“旋轉”一詞）是舞蹈的起源，也是18世紀維也納的產物，此后舞蹈的變化可謂大矣。在相當長的時間里，它提供的感官享受，及兩人相擁而舞的舉動被視為一種冒犯道德的行為。

華爾茲與19世紀的芭蕾一樣，一直與浪漫的愛戀緊密相連。除非是用來諷刺，不然，華爾茲音樂是從來不會被用作沖突場面的背景音樂的。

從第一次聽到倫納德·科恩改編自費德里科·加西亞·洛爾迦詩歌《維也納華爾茲》的歌詞到多年后，重聽此段還是可以讓一對對愛人在房間里欣喜狂舞，或者說至少讓他們蠢蠢欲動，想旋舞一番?！拔覍⒃诰S也納與你共舞/我會披上河流的偽裝/風信子在我的肩上飛舞/我的唇貼著你腿上的露珠?！?/p>

那是一個永遠難忘的夜晚——很久以前在多倫多舞蹈劇院里，我被巴里和海倫注入了對舞蹈的熱情，尤其是情愛之舞。弗雷德·阿斯泰爾與琴吉·羅杰斯、吉恩·凱利與萊斯利·卡倫，還有探戈舞伴和卡塔克舞伴、薩爾薩舞伴與冰舞舞伴：他們都得到愛神的靈啟。

當佩吉·貝克與邁克爾·肖恩·瑪爾數月前表演詹姆斯·庫德拉的雙人舞《男人創(chuàng)造女人》時，他們讓人們回味了大衛(wèi)·厄爾依據歌曲《魯比》編排的雙人舞所喚起的情感。沒有什么比看到兩人身體的移動彼此完全同步，并與音樂配合得天衣無縫更讓人興奮的了。

上個月就在麥克米倫劇院的同一個舞臺上，馬克·莫里斯舞團以根據浪漫作曲家約翰內斯·勃拉姆斯的作品改編的《愛之歌圓舞曲》向華爾茲以及舞蹈中所有的雙人舞伴——男女、男雙和女雙——呈獻了一段無與倫比的贊頌之舞。

莫里斯似乎從科恩那里得到了啟發(fā)：“跳上一段華爾茲，跳上一段華爾茲/現(xiàn)在它是你的了。這就是全部?！?/p>