The Cultural Dance Floor

When was the last time you were out on a dance floor? For some of you, maybe it has been quite awhile; for others, maybe last night?
Do you remember how you felt? What you saw? Who you saw? What kinds of people were out there dancing? What did you notice? What did you not notice and maybe later wished that you had?

My first time out on a dance floor (outside of my chaperoned school dances, of course) was an experience. I only knew a handful of people and they were going crazy dancing. As I looked around the dimly-lit room, it occurred to me that everyone else probably only knew a handful of people, too. It didn't matter, though. As soon as the music started, the beat had everyone dancing together. It was exactly as Beatrice Aaronson describes it in Music and Culture: "Everybody shares the dance floor, dancing, touching and sweating with somebody they might not otherwise speak to" (108). The dance floor is that exact scene.

Over several experiences, I've come to realize that the dance floor can sometimes be the most intimidating place and, at the same time, be a very welcoming place. Of course, there will always be those who are nervous and self-conscious of their moves (I would know; that used to be me) and there will always be the rude people who think they are better than everyone else and give dirty looks (they should be ignored). However, if you are out there dancing with everyone else, you are generally accepted.

Dancing automatically makes you part of the crowd. It doesn't matter where you've come from, what color your skin is, or what language you speak. Dancing and wanting to move your body is universal. Everyone can do it and everyone wants to, whether they will admit it or not. Aaronson makes a good point when she says,

"We find the energy that transcends social and cultural classifications. We have a body and we are a body. We are human and animal. Too much intellectualism kills our intuitive being and dries up our emotive resources. That is why the dance floor is so important in our society to recapture, if only temporarily, the instinctual forces of our existence, the only forces that can reconnect us to earth. A society that does not recognize the therapeutic value of public dance floors and abstract dance threatens its own mental and physical health" (109-110)..."I believe that rhythm and dance are the non-verbal form of communication par excellence" (111).

In dancing, we speak with our bodies. For that brief moment, it doesn't matter what language you speak; you communicate through the way you move. It does not make a difference who you are; just go dance.