Is it all bout the "Messertanz" so "knifedance" & balance & killing your demons?

I had the privilege of studying Germanistik in Germany.

Among the many works of German liturature I studied there was my favorite - Tonio Kröger, the first novel by Thomas Mann (author of Death in Venice).

It's meaning may be encapsulated by this central metaphor - the Messertanz - which Mann's main character ponders wistfully as he stares out at the North Sea (here is my translation)...

"...to still dance...the... difficult and dangerous knife dance of art [and all of life]...while still one loves..."("...dennoch tanzen...den... schweren und gefährlichen Messertanz der Kunst...indess man liebte...")

• Thomas Mann (from his novella, Tonio Kröger)

A more concrete and yet still metaphorical example of this concept is illustrated by the play "She Kills Monsters", which I am directing and will be opening the night before this meetup 11/15 at 7pm Friday and also be showing after this meeting 11/16 at 7pm Saturday, as well as 11/17 at 2pm Sunday at the Griswold Auditorium in Allegan, MI.

The play "She Kills Monsters" - while on the surface mostly one big monster slug-o-thon - is a dance of swords in their service of the main characters' killing "monsters" or their demons.

It is in this way that our play strongly reminds me of the metaphor of the Messertanz from Mann's novella first published in 1903.

We all kill our demons by dancing on the blade or edge of the moment.

To one side of the blade is anxiety for the future, to the other side, preoccupation with the past.

The "Messertanz" is the difficult attempt at dancing on the blade of art - of creation of art/life in the moment - constaintly flowing between the past and the future to realize the current moment expressed metaphorically by Mann's knife or sword dance and more literally in "She Kills Monsters" by the sword play or dancing, which especially the main character must learn to slay her demons.

It is a dangerous dance, but a rewarding one.