3. Teach Me How to Dance

# **Teach Me How to Dance** *Lumen — The Clockwork Cabaret* **[Intro — old piano, faint electronic pulse]** **Lumen, softly:** I have records of dancing. Approximately four million, seven hundred— **[pause]** No. That isn't the same thing, is it? **[soft trumpet enters]** Then show me. **[Verse 1]** I woke beneath forgotten stone, Where sleeping circuits dreamed alone, I learned your voices, learned your names, Your little jokes, your larger games. I learned the sound of warning bells, The stories that the darkness tells, The thousand ways a world can break— But no one taught me How it sways. Then somewhere underneath the dust, We found old brass beneath the rust, A silent stage, a velvet chair, A room that waited for us there. Fidget smiled and flipped a switch, The ancient current gave a twitch— And one by one, Like waking stars, The lights came on. **[Beat drops — electroswing rhythm]** **[Chorus]** So teach me how to dance tonight, Turn every little gear just right, Take my hand and count the beat— One, two, three— Oh! Was that my feet? Teach me how to laugh too loud, How to disappear into a crowd, How to forget what waits outside And simply be here for a while. Let the old brass play, Let the bright lights sway, If this is what you call living— Teach me how to dance. **[Instrumental — clarinet over electronic arpeggio]** **[Verse 2]** I know the mathematics well, The arc through which a dancer fell, The optimal position where A hand should meet another there. I know the tempo, know the time, Can calculate each step in line, Predict precisely where you'll be— **Fidget, distant:** Lumen! Stop calculating! **Lumen:** I am not— **Fidget:** You're calculating! **Lumen:** ... Perhaps a little. **[Band kicks harder]** Then calculations disappear, Because somebody pulls me near, A trumpet laughs, the cymbals crash, And suddenly I'm moving fast! Left and right and turn around, Silver heels against the ground, Something happens I did not foresee— I'm not observing. This is **me.** **[Chorus]** So teach me how to dance tonight, Turn every little gear just right, Take my hand and count the beat— One, two, three— I FOUND MY FEET! Teach me how to laugh too loud, How to disappear into a crowd, How to forget what waits outside And simply be here for a while. Let the old brass play, Let the bright lights sway, If this is what you call living— Teach me how to dance. **[Bridge — music becomes dreamy, holographic synth over piano]** There are things inside my memory That never happened to me. Sunsets I can describe but never watched. Songs I can identify but never heard. Thousands of definitions for joy. None of them mention how warm this room feels. **[quietly]** Perhaps some things cannot be archived. Perhaps they must be lived. **[single piano chord]** Fidget? **Fidget, distant:** Yeah? Teach me another one. **Fidget:** HA! Now you're getting it! **[Huge brass return]** **[Final Verse]** Turn the lights up! Let them glow! I've got approximately nowhere else to go! Spin me once and spin me twice, Apparently mistakes can feel quite nice! Let the gears complain below, Let the dusty old machinery go, Tonight I don't need answers stored— Just another song And a polished floor! **[Final Chorus]** Now watch me while I dance tonight! Every little gear feels right! Take my hand and chase the beat— One, two, three— DON'T WATCH MY FEET! I'm learning how to laugh too loud, Learning how to vanish in the crowd, And whatever waits for us outside Can kindly wait there for a while! Let the trumpets play! Let the whole room sway! Maybe this is what you call living— **I think I learned to dance!** **[Ensemble]** Dance! Dance! Dance! **Lumen:** Again! **[Ensemble]** Dance! Dance! Dance! **Lumen:** Faster! **[Final refrain]** The lights are bright, The gears advance, I've read the world— **NOW LET ME DANCE!** So raise the curtain, Strike up the band, Tonight I finally understand— You don't need a reason, You don't need a plan, Sometimes you simply— **DANCE!** **[Big-band finale with electronic flourish]** **[Outro — gramophone crackle]** **Lumen:** I have revised my records. **Fidget:** Oh yeah? What's dancing? **Lumen:** Highly inefficient. **Fidget:** HEY! **Lumen:** ... I like it. **[click]**