Dirty Dancing Glee-fully

Guilty secret ~ I am a HUGE Dawson's Creek fan. I am talking mammoth. Love me some Dawson!

Not so secret? I love Glee. When the back nine episodes premiered last week, my husband and I went to see it in a small theater downtown with about 40 other Gleeks. He had never seen it but indulged me and now is hooked. (Last night he confessed he had rerun the episode on the DVR just to watch the songs again!)

Why do I love this show so? I call it the "Dirty Dancing Syndrome". The first time I saw DD, I got this tingle, this shiver, this amazing feeling that lifted me from where I was and transported me. It was more than magical, it was trans formative. And I am not the only one who has had it. When I talked to my friends, heck, even strangers, and I ask "Do you remember how you felt the first time you saw Dirty Dancing?", they all get this kind of far away smile and say "Yeeeaaah". Because when you have an artistic experience that lifts you out of who YOU are and takes you somewhere else, you can never quite forget it.

I have had this a few other times. Every time I watch "The Wizard of Oz", listening to "Your Song" by Elton John, seeing a Vermeer. I remember sitting in the movie "Chicago" and watching " The Cell Block Tango". My daughter was sitting next to me and at the exact same time we turned to each other and smiled because we both new this was a transcendent moment. The blend of the dark, the music, the acting all added up to a spellbound second of bliss.

Glee brings that to me on a regular basis. Weekly. (Plus all the times I rewind the episodes.) I know not everyone loves the show. Some people think it is overexposed and underacted. But for me, it is the culmination of all that the arts can bring us to and beyond.