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Dancing and Passion: Where’s the Love?

By Nick Johnson

Nick
Throughout human history, dance pops up everywhere; one of those independent developments that occur in cultures and societies before they had contact with each other and could share ideas. Native American tribal dances, village dances in Europe and Scandinavia, oriental celebration dances, and, of course, dancing “Like an Egyptian.” There’s proof literally written in stone that humans have always danced, and those records allow for an interesting observation of the evolution of dance over time. Humans dance for celebration, for a good harvest, a marriage, a graduation, a coming of age, etc. ad infinitum. With so many occasions, what’s the common thread, the motivator, the energy? There could be any number of labels that encompass instances of dancing, but I’d propose that one of the broader elements is to bring people together.

Celebration of life is a wonderful reason to dance, like at a birthday, or a wake, or a baby shower, all of which spark joy from the achievements and potential of a life. Salsa dancing on Wednesday nights? West Coast Mondays? Swing dancing at the Wabasha Street Caves? Birthday dances after lessons? What better reason to dance than the joy of life and sharing it with others? Well, that, and it fits into one of the two motivations my literature teachers have said encompass almost the entirety of human expression: sex and death. Sex we’ll get to later, but how is death tied to dancing? Many cultures embrace death as a part of life, like Dia de los Muertos, or the now commercialized All Hallow’s Eve. The cycle of the two, the link between life and death, can be traced as a rather fine line, even grey or blurred in most instances.

Sex and dance have been intertwined for quite some time as well. Dances of seduction, of passion, of ecstasy, of romance, of flirting, or fertility, all linked and aligned in one way or the other. Many today are worried about the morality of dancing in high school, even elementary schools in some places. Will children be tempted into immoral congress by the wiles of dance? Footloose was based on the general opposition of puritanical believers to the visceral pleasure of dancing, tied to the Devil’s music and the general descent into sin and debauchery. Can-can dancing brought prostitution and performance together on stage and eventually to the silver screen (“Moulin Rouge,” anyone?). A purely physical display of ability, agility, flexibility, coordination, form, all on display, sometimes in competition with other dancers to win partners, attention, awards? It sure sounds like dancing is a microcosm for the human mating phase.

I don’t think it can be logically argued that dance as a concept is independent of life or sexuality, nor do I think it should. Both components have influenced the perception and evolution of dance over time into an amazing spectrum of styles, situations, and expressions. The proviso I would point out is that competitive dancing does not draw people together. I argue that social dancing, the celebratory gathering and mingling building block of dance, is beginning to separate from competitive style. Lower levels of competition have more rules, more focus on mechanics and athletics, on getting it right. These rules secularize the dance itself, while conveying a mood, tone, feeling of the dance through body language and expression. Higher levels shuck off most if not all of the syllabus guidelines of what can and cannot be done without penalty, leaving evolving trends in judging and teaching to style the competitors. The joy on the faces of champions is that of Olympians, paragons of sport, not of people celebrating life and love around them. It’s a fine line, but it’s there. I’m not saying this is bad, or how it shouldn’t be. But the separation does exist, and it is growing as competition becomes more competitive and social dancing leans in a different direction.

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