In Pursuit of Weightlessness

Last weeK at the National Portrait Gallery I had the pleasure of listening to Ivan Putrov, a principle dancer from the Royal Ballet, who recently returned from a knee injury that kept him from dancing for 11 months. He quoted from one of Waldemar Janusczak’s critiques were he describes the plight of a ballet dancer, “Spotlit on a stage, isolated from the quotidian demands of the heartbeat, out of reach of the basic rhythms of life, the ballet dancer dreams of the divine state of weightlessness. But — and here we get to the nub of their tragedy — the only time humans ever really achieve that state is when they are dead. Thus, ballet, with its insatiable appetite for zero gravity, is the most tragic of all the arts.”


I really related to this quote because in a way I feel that Christianity his similar in that way. One of the things that we try to achieve is to usher in God’s kingdom here on earth but like weightlessness, we can only achieve such a feat when we are quite literally dead. I mean when we allow ourselves to die to our own agenda, since of entitlement, and greed to name a few, we position ourselves so that we are willing to give more and be more in and to the world we live in. In fleeting moments that humanity achieves such a thing it is beautiful and awe inspiring, much like seeing the ballet dancer who is able to leap with extraordinary ease into the heavens with legs and arms fully extended, gracefully released from the pull of the earth. It takes your breathe away.

It is my dream that Christians would desire to take the worlds breathe away as we lay our lives down and pursue the “weightlessness” of bringing God’s dreams and desires into fruition on this earth. So few people achieve the status of Prima Ballerina, maybe that is why few Christians set out for the task and even less continually strive to remain there. Both ballet and Christianity require countless hours of painful sacrifice and daily practice (which no one sees) to achieve something momentary, and when the moment has passed one goes back to the basics until the next moment presents itself.


In order to effect change in the world by ushering in God’s perspective cannot be done, in my opinion, with picket signs and boycotts. Nor will it be achieved by prayer and fasting alone. It requires action - signing up for a suicide mission. I also believe we (Christians, humanity, etc) need to ditch the idea that true fulfilment comes when we train ourselves to resist our desires. I see things differently - when you die, your deepest desires fulfilled, this is when you become weightless as Janusczak put it so aptly. When you pursue the One who created you and knows you best the crap just falls away, making room for that which is pure, lasting and most satisfying. Crazy yes, but I think it is crazy enough to work.