Thoughts on why we should all dance

"We should consider every day lost on which we have not danced at least once" - Friedrich Nietzsche

As many have lamented in recent years, we seem to spend less time relating to other, flesh and blood, humans and more time in our own private worlds or relating to technology.  Blame covid or blame our phones, but we substitute social media for actual human interaction.  The more we do this, the harder it becomes to relate to actual humans.  We humans can be frustrating, imperfect, selfish, annoying, and sometimes cruel so it is not surprising that we might prefer to interact through social media.  We may not know how to handle real human interactions, but there are no uncomfortable face to face interactions online where we can attempt to present the most perfect version of ourselves.  Unfortunately, this often leads to a vicious cycle of wanting perfection, falling short, and eventually feeling bad because we cannot achieve this perfection.

So, after this short rant I have a suggestion.  Learn to dance.  Learn how to dance with another human.  Then, go to a dance.  Learning how to dance is more than just learning the steps and the mechanics of social dance.  It is also learning how to have comfortable, safe, social interactions within the context of dancing.  Dance can be a safe, healthy, and fun way to interact with a partner and others, At a dance, there are conventions of behavior which are easy to abide and easy to understand.  You don’t necessarily need to make witty conversation.  You can simply walk up to someone and say “would you like to dance” while offering your hand.  That is all that is required.  If you are asked to dance, you can say no, but if you do say no the “rule” is that you don’t then say yes to someone else for just that song.  If you say yes, you simply offer your hand to the asker and get up and dance.  This is not a big commitment.  It is a 3-minute commitment to dance with another person in a safe, public setting.  So these conventions allow us to relax in the knowledge that we know what is expected and how to behave.

Perfection is not a requirement.  Great skill or experience is not a requirement.  Knowing hundreds of dance steps is not a requirement.  Making an effort to learn the basics is.  Partner dance is a language.  It is non-verbal body language, and like most other languages, we need to have a shared vocabulary to communicate.  Learning the patterns of the different dances and how they are communicated between partners is the basis of the dance language.  Once you learn some of the basics, you can start the conversation.  If you stick with it long enough, the conversations can get more complicated and subtle.  But know that most experienced dancers are quite happy to dance something basic and simple.  Beginners are always welcome.

Let’s create community through dance, get our noses out of our phones, and make eye contact with another person.  Take hands and dance!