Dancing Trees

A Trees Telling Stories Photo Story

What can I say – some of us were just born to dance! Take me, for example, I’ve got the curves, the moves, and the shape for dancing:

I realize, we can’t glide over a dance floor like Fred and Ginger, we can’t breakdance or do a drop (at least, not more than once), but we can dance right where we are with all the grace and beauty of the best of them. At least some of us can.

Wind helps a lot. On windy days, this tree does a great ‘shimmy and shake’:

And luckily it lives on a slight ridge where there’s a pretty good breeze almost every day. As a side benefit, all the dancing is great exercise and helps keep the tree fit and toned.

Some trees like to dance with a partner, like these two from Maui. It’s beautiful to watch the two of them perform a gentle hula dance and the background isn’t bad either.

Here’s another young couple from Three Sisters Wilderness in Central Oregon. It will be fun to see how their dance moves change as they get older and taller.

They are whitebark pines like me and so we compete sometimes in the local dance competitions.

Some large tree-like plants, like this saguaro, try to dance, but they only have one real move and it’s a little bit dated:

And of course, sometimes we can overdo it:

But whether it’s a gentle swaying hula, a fun boogie or a more hectic shimmy and shake, most trees like to dance. Next time you see one of us doing it, feel free to join in! Be great to see #treedancer become as popular as #treehugger. Not that there’s anything wrong with hugging a tree. See you out there on the tree dance floor!