{"id":480,"date":"2014-10-15T18:24:27","date_gmt":"2014-10-15T22:24:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sallybsedgwick.com\/conversation\/?p=480"},"modified":"2014-10-15T18:24:27","modified_gmt":"2014-10-15T22:24:27","slug":"dance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.spiritmoxie.com\/conversation\/dance\/","title":{"rendered":"Dance"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Dancing<\/a>One of my dreams for Spirit Moxie is to challenge the events we attend. When I was at the Wild Goose Festival<\/a>, my mental challenge to them was to dance. When I shared this with some friends, there was confusion, but I was clear this was the right word. At the 2013 Wild Goose Festival people literally didn\u2019t dance all that much. But \u201cdancing\u201d was required for the 2014 event to be the inclusive weekend they envisioned.<\/span> That is, d<\/span>ancing by partnering with unlikely companions, dancing by playing with words, dancing by just letting go. And, of course, by simply dancing to the great music at the event.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"10333805_809856775705383_7130097407965871320_o\"<\/a>It\u2019s a popular image these days. A friend just challenged on Facebook, \u201cToday, are you dancing on the precipice of chaos or swooning for the cradle of order?\u201d<\/span> Most people who responded to him opted for \u201cboth.\u201d<\/span> But why? What is it in us that resists dancing or makes us qualify it? Do we fear the feeling of letting go? Are we concerned that it demands something we don\u2019t understand? We seem to crave order. Why? What is it about \u201cdance as if no one is watching\u201d<\/span> that makes us say, yes, let\u2019s do that \u2014<\/span> and then not dance at all? <\/span><\/p>\n

For the record I love to dance. But in high school and college I felt that I didn\u2019t dare.\u00a0 <\/span>From my perspective dancing involved doing set moves that felt like a test, sort of like line dancing does for me now. Dancing then brought out all my awkwardness and poor body image. Remember The Monkey and The Mashed Potato? For some reason I can still do an OK Twist.<\/span><\/p>\n

But then, suddenly, toward the end of my college years it became acceptable \u2013 or maybe I just learned <\/span>\u2014<\/span> to dance just by moving. Now this I can do, as long as it doesn\u2019t involve serious ballroom moves. So I now deal with the different dance challenges of inconsistent music, no partners, and limited opportunities. And I watch sadly as even more people seem to just sit still when dance music is on.\"drum<\/a> <\/span><\/p>\n

For example I couldn\u2019t get my younger son to dance with me at a recent wedding (no, not his). He just simply said he didn\u2019t dance. Period. I see women dance together a bit more often nowadays and sometimes join in. But I know this isn\u2019t some sort of female lament. Recent Facebook posts from male friends lamented the lack of dance music (or danceable music and dancers?) at a recent festival. And a friend allowed as how she should take me out with them because her husband would keep dancing long after her energy gave out.<\/span><\/p>\n

Last week I was privileged to hear some African American drumming. Only about four people (out of a couple hundred) seemed to be moving at all. How could they sit still?<\/span><\/p>\n

I think that not dancing, not daring to move, has become a social norm. We might look silly. We might, as my teen aged self thought, get it wrong. And we\u2019ve forgotten how! Watch a small child hearing a song with a serious beat. It\u2019s related to our heart \u2014 we literally carry a beat. Dancing is built into us. So if you don\u2019t dance, why not? Seriously, I\u2019d like to know and am having trouble getting answers when I ask. <\/span><\/p>\n

A couple of days ago I asked a friend who is a drummer about this. I\u2019m pretty sure <\/span>drumming is all he thinks about. My first question was \u201cWhy do bands like it when people dance?\u201d \u201cThat\u2019s easy,\u201d he answered. \u201cWhen people are up and dancing they\u2019re being entertained, and we want to entertain.\u201d \u201cSo why don\u2019t people dance?,\u201d I then asked. \u201cThat\u2019s easy, too. Good pulse is often missing from music these days.\u201d\"Astaire<\/a><\/p>\n

Hmmm. He went on to suggest watching King Sunny Ad\u00e9 <\/a>or Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire. When I searched I found various cultural mixes of modern and African and this beautiful, non-verbal flirtation and seduction between Fred Astaire and Cyd Charisse: Dancing in the Dark in the Central Park<\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But again why bother even talking about it? We watch \u201cDancing with the Stars\u201d and \u201cSo You Think You Can Dance.\u201d We go to our school prom and then send our teenagers off to theirs. Perhaps we support ballet or groups like the challenging, creative ArtBark<\/a>\u00a0or the \"Misa<\/a>Dance Theatre of Harlem<\/a>,\u00a0You might have heard of Twila Twarp<\/a>, who has reclaimed \u201cmodern\u201d dance as true dance and as relevant to all. You probably haven\u2019t heard of Misa Kelly, who challenges the dance scene in California and beyond (I met her in Brooklyn). Both hold dance as a way to express who we are and where we might go.<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s even more basic than that. Gabrielle Roth <\/a>said, \u201cIn many shamanic societies, if you came to a medicine person complaining of being disheartened, dispirited, or depressed . . . [they would ask] one of four questions. When did you stop dancing? . . . .\u201d It\u2019s even gotten scientific. For instance dancing has been shown to be much more effective in preventing dementia<\/a> than that crossword puzzle you do a few times a week. So it would seem that in a disheartened world and our personal world of worries of \u201cI\u2019m afraid,\u201d dancing might be the way to a more positive, joyous place.\"1277534_641659485858447_947075577_o\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Besides, while we might not physically dance, we do use dance as metaphor. We talk about dancing around an issue as a way of avoidance, but perhaps we avoid the issues as a way to keep from dancing. It is in letting go that possibility comes to the fore. So next time you\u2019re confronted by uncertainty or avoidance, invite the issue into the dance. Dance with the challenge. Invite yourself in, too. And let go. Perhaps engaging and dancing with our world will heal us all. How might this work for you?<\/span><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, if you really are going dancing give me a call. I\u2019d love to come along.<\/span><\/p>\n

_______________________________<\/p>\n

Photo credits from top:
\nADaPT Fest 2013 \u2014\u00a0Beth Megill
\nDance in Mother Nature’s Embrace \u2014 Misa Kelly
\nThe Office \u2014 Lance Robbins
\nPromo photo of Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire \u2014 Public Domain
\nStephen & Misa Kelly \u2014 Stephen Sherrill<\/a>
\nNo Strings Attached Dance Company<\/a> \u2014 Kathee Miller<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of my dreams for Spirit Moxie is to challenge the events we attend. When I was at the Wild Goose Festival, my mental challenge to them was to dance. When I shared this with some friends, there was confusion, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-main-conversation"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s6DJHl-dance","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spiritmoxie.com\/conversation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spiritmoxie.com\/conversation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spiritmoxie.com\/conversation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spiritmoxie.com\/conversation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spiritmoxie.com\/conversation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=480"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.spiritmoxie.com\/conversation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":491,"href":"https:\/\/www.spiritmoxie.com\/conversation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480\/revisions\/491"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spiritmoxie.com\/conversation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spiritmoxie.com\/conversation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spiritmoxie.com\/conversation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}