Tough gig on hacker news with this one. Unless it's logical thinking to prove superiority, you've lost!
Dancing is stupid
31–40 of 134 posts
Re: Dancing is stupid
#32Earlier quoted context omitted.
> 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 becau…
> 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.
I've done team sports and all I can say is: it's not the same[1]. When I'm on a team, we're all trying to achieve the same goal, but we aren't one body. There's no sense that everyone is acting as a single being. Beyond that, I guess, I can't really give much of a logical argument - it's just something that I've experienced. And others may disagree, which is fine too.
My own personal theory is that there is no innate way the body can tell what is self and what is other. And synchronized movement is a sort of hack that tricks people into partially accepting other people as self. But that's just a wild theory I have and has no real backing that I know of.
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1. I suspect that high level military drill probably would engender the same feelings, but I suspect that that's not what you meant when you mentioned "team sports".
Re: Dancing is stupid
#33Lipsky: You dance?
David Foster Wallace : Uh huh. I’ve just discovered in the last few years that I really like it. Although I’m still not very good.
Lipsky: Where do you go, a club?
David: This Baptist church.
Lipsky: Why there?
David: Because Baptists can dance.
-- from the film The End of the Tour
Re: Dancing is stupid
#34There'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…
Yeah I just don’t find dancing fun. That’s it, end of story.
Wherever there’s dancing at a wedding or something I just think of it as something I have to get through so I don’t appear rude.
Re: Dancing is stupid
#35> Dancing is a great test of what part of your brain dominates. Good dancing is when you stop thinking and just let your feelings lead.
Yah, that's why best dancers in the world never train and prepare their routines.
Honestly. Good dancing is when you stop thinking, AFTER you have spent time preparing enough so you don't have to think about it anymore.
I wonder if people watching TV or Youtube get the wrong impression. They see people making things look easy. Nice poses, nice makeup, nice dresses, light moves. What they don't see is countless hours over many years that went into preparing everything.
**
I am an amateur runner. People sometimes tell me I am a natural. I honestly look well when running, no hunching, positively bouncy, light steps. No exertion. Easy breathing.
I try to explain that I spent couple years just fixing my running mechanics, one step at a time. Strengthening my muscles and tendons so that I can move my weight to forefoot and recover more energy when running, running with a metronome to get my cadence right, learning to breathe deeply and in sync with my strides, running strides to fix my mechanics when at full speed, bringing my attention to what my hands are doing so that they are relaxed and not moving to the sides too much, making sure my foot contacts pavement under me and not before me, making sure my heels move high up behind me, forcing myself to run straight and look straight, doing strength exercises at home so that my core muscles are strong enough to support good posture while running, learning to regulate my speed by tilting forward, etc.
Even silly things like paying attention to the weather and clothing for the weather. I see so many people put on way too much clothes when it gets just a tad colder and then look visibly uncomfortable throughout the run.
When I started running I did it, too. Then I made a running log where I noted the outside weather conditions and how I felt through the run and over time I learned what I exactly need to put on depending on the weather and the run I am making so I feel just right.
No, things don't come naturally -- at least not to most people.
And I think it is good news. Almost everybody can do almost everything. The only thing that is blocking me from being a good dancer is whether I want to invest the time to become one. I don't. I can relax knowing it is up to me to decide what I can achieve and what I want to spend my efforts on.
Re: Dancing is stupid
#36There'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…
What about those who didn't want at first, then tried it after some nudging, and ended up enjoying it?
I think that’s why some people really push it. There a myriad of reasons for not wanting to dance. A lot of them can be overcame (shame, fear of embarrassment, lack of knowledge how one would properly dance, doubt that it will be an enjoyable experience, etc) and the person can experience legitimate joy after dancing. This happens often enough that convinces the pushers that this it’s a good thing to keep pushing the resistants to dance. Of course, it’s not always true. But I would not fault those pushers to believe so.
Re: Dancing is stupid
#37There'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…
What about those who didn't want at first, then tried it after some nudging, and ended up enjoying it?
Whenever someone has done that I end up pretending it’s fine until it’s socially acceptable to stop.
Re: Dancing is stupid
#38There'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…
What about those who didn't want at first, then tried it after some nudging, and ended up enjoying it?
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Re: Dancing is stupid
#39I'm just not sure the common modern people dance at all. They go to the dance floor and do some weird random movements listening to overly loud music of grossly low quality. Whether people a century or two ago has interpreted this as dance or as some mental conditon is an open question. I'm all for ball dance or irish dance but not for the club variety.
Yeah what folks do nowadays is more like, I don't know, what people did for a million years before courtly Renaissance pedants started codifying it so somebody could be cooler than another person.
Nope! For a million years people spent a lot of effort on culture which meant their tunes (drum rhymes) and dance movements were quite advanced.
We live in epoch of deliberate primitivism.
Re: Dancing is stupid
#40It's common for poorly adjusted people to develop a sense of superiority as a defence mechanism.
Or perhaps people are different and they find themselves pressured and bullied by “normal” people.