In praise of feet

 Please, as usual, bear with me on this one. I am not at all joining the sub-group of people, harmless enough, who get some kind of unusual kick out of feet. Getting a kick out of a foot might happen often enough, but for me it never becomes that kind of kick. I will explain what made me want to write this. 

I have always thought that feet got a bad rep: all that 'Ooh, smelly!' and 'How dare you put those things up on the couch like that!' A lot of people have no time at all for feet, and it seems they would be much happier if our distal extremities terminated at the ankle. 

I like feet. I think they are quite beautiful and elegant, as well as being strong and functional and able to let us bend over without falling over. I have told my loved ones more than once that they have beautiful feet. I have bought ankle bracelets to adorn them. Is this odd? I don't think so. Feet are lovely. Especially dancers' feet, I have to say. 

The reason that this topic did spring to my mind is that last night I took my daughter Emma for a birthday treat to our local dance theatre (Dance East ), where we saw a great performance of modern dance from the Dance company of Wales (Dance Company of Wales) . And the thing with dancing is that it is so much better, for the dancer and the audience, if you do it in bare or nearly bare feet. The feel of the floor under your gripping toes is so much more alive when you are not cumbered by footwear. The look of a pointed limb is so much more elegant when the whole shape of the pointed limb can be seen in full. 

You may have heard on here (where have you been if you haven't heard?) that I spent ten years or so teaching in Primary schools in England. And because our primary school teachers have to be able to teach all subjects, I have in fact taught dance to 8-year olds and 9-year olds and 10-year olds. It was great fun. But rule one was shoes off (for the children and the teacher) because the contact and the movement and the elegance was always improved by bare feet. You could point your toes, splay your toes, arch your arch, twist at the ankle; all sorts of movements and expression that are completely muffled by footwear. 

And also, at the end of a long day, what nicer situation is there than to be reclining on a couch with a drink of your choice in your hand and your loved one lying at the other end of the couch with a drink in her hand and with her feet in your lap? Well it works for me.