Dance with a Teapot Today

Ok. Today, you are going to learn a new dance. For that, some people think you need music. It’s not true. Being aware of where you are in space and time, of the reach of your outstretched arm, and the weight of your hand as it moves through space, they’re all just as much dance as any cha-cha champion’s fancy footwork.

Your partners today will be a teapot, a milk jug and cups (hopefully, all old friends). But before we start, first you must make a pot of good tea and fill the jug with milk. All good? Then we begin.

1. Pick up the teapot by its handle and pour tea into the first cup. As you do so, feel its weight, its balance, how it tells you how far it wants to be from that cup, (you knew that before you started because of the shape of the spout, didn’t you?) how fast it pours, what it wants you to do.

• Then move to the next. You will discover things about rhythm and time – 1, 2, 3, 4 and, stop move to the next, 1, 2, 3, 4 and, stop. See? You and your teapot are moving together. That’s good. Very good. You’re dancing that dance that only you and your teapot can do.

• Next, change partners. Milk jug now. Smaller, lighter, different times, different rhythms, different pleasures on offer.

• Nearly done. Pick up the cup or mug. Notice how you hold it. How many fingers grasp the handle (if there is one)? Feel its balance. Enjoy the arc of your arm and the weight of the cup in your hand as it comes to your mouth. Feel it on your lips. Taste the contents with your tongue. Then, changed weight, changed balance, down and … rest.

• That’s the tea dance, my friends. Don’t forget: every pot will teach you a different dance, different moves, and rhythms. So just go and make a pot of tea and start dancing with your teapot today. Because what every pot really wants is to be held by you. It wants to teach you its own special dance.