Inside : 15 beautiful dance poems
Movement is one of the most beautiful things in the world. It can express so much without saying a word. Famous American modern dancer Martha Graham is even popularly quoted as saying, “The body says what words cannot.”
Indeed, dance is a form of movement that can be incredibly expressive, and it’s also beautiful to watch. Around the world, dance has been used as a form of expression. It can tell stories, convey emotion, and bring people together. Dance is also a way to stay fit and healthy.
And because it is such a popular activity, it has been used in poetry for centuries. These poems tell us about the power and beauty of dance, almost like saying that “to dance is to be human.”
Slow Dance Poems
One, two, and three. Read these well-versed poems that are brimming with the beauty of dance. Take some time to slow down and immerse yourself in the imagery.
Dance in the moonlight with all the stars in sight
Dance with all of this power and might
Dance with danger every night
Dance up and down twirling around
Dance with sweat dripping down the neck
Then dance with fire every dark hour
Dance with thrust if you must
But dance on the hour every hour
That’s when to explain in steps the dance of dances
—Nick Tragger
2. Dance Freely
Move to your own drum,
create your own rhythm
Step left it you want to, even if it’s not right
Follow the hidden song only you can hear,
begging you to dance – each move
weaving together the lines of your life,
the love of your heart, and
the light of your soul.
—Nina Heyen
To fling my arms wide
In some place of the sun,
To whirl and to dance
Till the white day is done.
Then rest at cool evening
Beneath a tall tree
While night comes on gently,
Dark like me-
That is my dream!
—Langston Hughes
4. Slow Dance
When the day is done,
Do you lie in your bed
With the next hundred chores
Running through your head?
You’d better slow down.
Don’t dance so fast.
—David L. Weatherford
DANCE little baby, dance up high,
Never mind baby, mother is by ;
Crow and caper, caper and crow,
There little baby, there you go ;
Up to the ceiling, down to the ground,
Backwards and forwards, round and round ;
Dance little baby, and mother shall sing,
With the merry coral, ding, ding, ding.
—Ann Taylor
Romantic Dance Poems
When words put you under a spell that makes your heart dance, the body follows. Let these poems make your heart leap and your body move.
6. The Dance
On that dim-lit periphery
where time is always out
we had our own eternity
to get it right and found
in our two tuneless hearts
a common beat
—Neal Bowers
7. The Dancer
I met an artist
now my days
are painted in lavender
every hour a different hue.
Dance in blurred tones
with each stroke I glide
moved by inspiration.
I am his vision, his dancer,
his impression of beauty
This canvas my stage
as I perform for you.
—Christine Ann Martine
I could take the Harlem night
and wrap around you,
Take the neon lights and make a crown,
Take the Lenox Avenue busses,
Taxis, subways,
And for your love song tone their rumble down.
Take Harlem’s heartbeat,
Make a drumbeat,
Put it on a record, let it whirl,
And while we listen to it play,
Dance with you till day–
Dance with you, my sweet brown Harlem girl.
—Langston Hughes
The children dancing, dancing,
Light upon happy feet,
Both eye and heart entrancing
Mingle, escape, and meet;
Come joyous-eyed and advancing
Or floatingly retreat.
Now slow, now swifter treading
Their paces timed and true,
An instant poised, then threading
A maze of printless clue,
Their motions smoothly wedding
To melody anew,
They sway in chime, and scatter
In looping circles; they
Are Music’s airy matter,
And their feet move, the way
The raindrops shine and patter
On tossing flowers in May.
—Robert Laurence Binyon
I smile at him, then I coyly avert my eyes
I find him so handsome; that I cannot disguise
He reaches tenderly for my awaiting hand
We move to the dance floor; oh it is so grand
His arm wrapped around my tiny waist
We dance to the music, there is no haste
So full of excitement at the hope of romance
I float round the room at my very first dance
—Jan Allison
Creative Poems About Dance
Isn’t it amazing how words can move us and how they somehow tell our minds to also make a move? These poems tell us what it’s like to be a dance and how movement shapes every fiber of our being.
A dancer’s heart beats in eight-count
A dancer’s eyes always shine
A dancer’s soul is filled with music
So their feet always fall in time
A dancer feels like no other
The vibrant rhythm of life
And it all goes into the performance
All the joy and all the strife
So remember that with dancers
A little patience is what you need
Because their minds are otherwise engaged
Dancers are truly a different breed
—Jessica Boudreaux
In Hawaii they Hula
They Tango in Argentina
They Reggae in Jamaica
And they Rumba down in Cuba,
In Trinidad and Tobago
They do the Calypso
And in Spain the Spanish
They really do Flamenco.
—Benjamin Zephaniah
Minnaloushe runs in the grass
Lifting his delicate feet.
Do you dance, Minnaloushe, do you dance?
When two close kindred meet,
What better than call a dance?
Maybe the moon may learn,
Tired of that courtly fashion,
A new dance turn.
—W. B. Yeats
14. Come Dance, Come Dance With Me
Don’t tell me where the angels fly
Just tell me where they dance
And I’ll put on my dancing shoes
And of course my dancing pants
—C.J. Krieger
15. Skyline Ballroom
O to dance upon the star-struck infinity of the heavens!
To be lost in that crystalline sea
past the death of stoney faced cliffs
that the pen can only dream to find
—SyntheticSun
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