Corporeal Karaoke Kindness

(Never have I ever been more glad that Corporeal starts with a “C”.)

An interesting thing happened last night.

I went to The Ringling Museum Thursday night for an event called, “Ringling Underground”.

There’s bands that play in the garden/courtyard, there’s gallery bingo, and tonight there was Corporeal Karaoke.

We, my friend Shura and I, played Bingo and then found ourselves at Corporeal Karaoke.

Well C.K. (for short) was very interesting. People picked a song and danced to it in front of a small crowd and in a room with colorful lights that went from bright to dark. There was a male dancer who danced multiple times and he was very graceful. I’ve never seen someone so up-close be so graceful and powerful. It was overwhelming, in the best way. Then after him there were some very young girls who, at first, I had very low expectations for, but turns out they’ve been trained in ballet and were quite talented for their ages.

There were some breaks thrown in and people would dance in the stage area, all together of course, and I could have sworn that male dancer would look at me, but surely he was looking at someone else.

Then there was two southern boys, one of which had LED shoes. I light painted his lit up sneakers and after he had performed I caught him and asked him if he’d want the photos. I gave him my number and he put me down as, “Miss Hilary” in his phone. I’m not sure why, but it made me smile. Also he and his friend were very kind and introduced themselves to Shura and me and each gave kind handshakes. I’m not quite sure how someone kindly shakes your hand, but I know it’s a thing cause that’s what they did. I used to be a person that shook hands very firmly, convinced that it said something good about me, but now that my hands hurt I crave a more gentle handshake. It seems like people either wanna break your hand or hand you a dead fish. This was neither and I know it’s small, but the little things need to be appreciated.

At the end of C.K. they played music and people either left or danced together in the stage space.

Shura went to dance and I was content to people watch and dance in my seat.

James, the male dancer, locked eyes and started walking towards me. He came over and invited me to dance with him.

I didn’t respond. Only because the inside of my mind was screaming for me to say yes and I couldn’t make sense of what my mind was saying. He then went on to say that he loved my hair and glasses and that I was perfect and please dance with him. He said I didn’t even have to move very much. I could just move my hips a little, which he demonstrated.

He is a very good looking guy, talking to me, telling me I look perfect, and to dance with him.

As I was writing that sentence I had one eyebrow raised the whole time because it still doesn’t make sense to me.

I stood and we ended up talking and I asked him about doing a photoshoot with me. Turns out he is from the Sarasota area but lives in Paris, his company is in Belgium, and is only in town for the one day. But he gave me his email and told me to message him and we’d talk about getting together when he’s in town next.

Excuse me while my jaw drops and tongue rolls out of my mouth and down the street. Not really though because we kept talking.

In retrospect it seems weird to me that I’m so dumbfounded by a good looking guy seeking me out and being kind to me, but it meant a lot.

And on top of all of it he’s a super kind person.

So, now I get to say I have a friend who lives in Paris.

Because even though we only talked for about 15-20 minutes I feel like I can honestly say

he’s an authentic, quality person who has cheekbones that could slice butter, and he was kind to me.

Kindness says things that words never could.

Sincerely Yours,

The Undefeated