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Dancing is stupid

stan.bar

11–20 of 134 posts

Re: Dancing is stupid

#11
> I’ve never heard of a family being divided because its members dance different styles, but I am in one divided by political and religious opinions.

Being a dancer (lindy hop) with a large number of dancers in my social circle, dancing is actually a frequent source of tension among many couples around me.

Couples splitting up because one is heavily more invested in dancing than the other is a common occurence.

And don’t get me started on lindy hop vs west coast swing.

Re: Dancing is stupid

#12
post #9

Dancing is just a game we play, like everything else we do. Once you see it like that it all makes sense

So when I'm dancing alone, which I do occasionally, I play a game? What game is that?

Games are not always group activity. The game is alignment & synchronization. Animals also dance. Parrots are quite good at it.

Re: Dancing is stupid

#15
Over the past two years I have become quite a competent swing dancer. In order to do this, I've had to practice (of course), but also make friends and build community with people from all different walks of life and professions.

We got to know each other a lot more slowly, some might even say superficially, but these slow burn relationships with more conversation in dance than in words have become some of the deepest and most meaningful friendships in my adult life.

If I could have my time all over again, I would start dancing as early as possible in life.

Re: Dancing is stupid

#16

Dancing is just a game we play, like everything else we do. Once you see it like that it all makes sense

> Dancing is just a game we play, like everything else we do. Once you see it like that it all makes sense IMO, this is just not true. There is something really special about synchronized action with other people. Be it marching, singing, chanting, etc. It engenders trust, builds community, and generally builds relationships in a way that I don't think anything else does. This isn't a strictly good thing either - my…

> It's fundamentally a different sort of activity to listening to poetry, playing basketball, attending a lecture, or writing a CRUD app.

I disagree. Team sports (playing basketball) are just as much about choreography and also the connection between dance and all other activities you mentioned. The feeling of being part of a "well-oiled machine" is the sense that the choreography is successful. This feels good because most of the time a group of people wouldn't care for doing what you expect. It's affirmation.

Re: Dancing is stupid

#17

Dancing is just a game we play, like everything else we do. Once you see it like that it all makes sense

> Dancing is just a game we play, like everything else we do. Once you see it like that it all makes sense IMO, this is just not true. There is something really special about synchronized action with other people. Be it marching, singing, chanting, etc. It engenders trust, builds community, and generally builds relationships in a way that I don't think anything else does. This isn't a strictly good thing either - my…

>It engenders trust, builds community, and generally builds relationships

But that's what competitive games also do. You cannot play basketball without trusting, collaborating, communicating with your teammates. Those are the pillars of teamwork. Also synchronicity is core to them, so much that researchers have taken noticed (https://www.popsci.com/nba-basketball-synchronous-movements-...).

Re: Dancing is stupid

#18

> I’ve never heard of a family being divided because its members dance different styles, but I am in one divided by political and religious opinions. Being a dancer (lindy hop) with a large number of dancers in my social circle, dancing is actually a frequent source of tension among many couples around me. Couples splitting up because one is heavily more invested in dancing than the other is a common occurence. And d…

> And don’t get me started on lindy hop vs west coast swing.

The sad thing is that (for the most part) I don't think the westies really hate on the lindy hoppers much. You can see, admittedly older, clips[1] of dancers throwing in a bit of lindy, balboa, and shag in top level comps. Of course, this is Sylvia Sykes, so maybe that's an exception.

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1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psOWt0oyx9k

Re: Dancing is stupid

#19
There's something about dancing that people get really weird about if you don't want to participate. As if it's their god given duty to convince you that, no, you really DO like dancing, and you'll have a great time if you just loosen up and have fun. I wish people would just respect "no thank you" and stop trying to push people to do something they clearly don't want. As is, I have to avoid events with dancing.

And no, it's not an elitist "I'm just so much smarter than the people dancing" thing, like the post seems to imply.

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