Dance. Dance.
The dance has always been with us.
Way before there was written language, people gathered together in those early cultures and passed stories from one person to the next, not just laterally, but down through the generations. A part of this culture included many different forms of dances — social, celebratory, and ritual varieties.
There is a painting on a wall in a cave, somewhere in India, some 9,000 years old. And in that painting, we can find the earliest references to dance. The next proof we see is from 5300 years ago, in old Egypt, in the same form of pictures. All around the world, from Ancient Greece to China and back to India. All these old dances moved forward, touching every culture on the planet.
It is true. Ancient humans love to sing and dance, which somehow reminds me of the scene from Young Frankenstein, where Gene Wilder and Peter Boyle perform, “Putting on the Ritz.”
Anyway, back to dance. I would say that probably all of us have danced at some point in our lives, some better than others. Last night, we watched an episode of the Golden Girls, where Blanche and Rose decide to take “Dirty Dancing” classes. There is one scene where they are Dirty Dancing together, and it might be one of the funniest things I’ve ever watched.
The point is, dance comes in all forms, and who is to judge?
Well, apparently, a lot of people judge dance. They have throughout the ages and still do today. I’m included. This occurred to me as I read today’s history notes. Back on January 26, 1962, the Bishop Burke of Buffalo Catholic dioceses declares Chubby Checker’s “The Twist” to be simply despicable. So impure, he banned it from all Catholic schools.
By today’s standards, I’d have to say The Twist is rather innocuous. But there it was, banned, in all its glory. I’m guessing a lot of Catholic kids went right on twisting. And doing all sorts of other dances too. That was quite the thing in the 1960s. There was The Mashed Potato, The Swim, The Loco-Motion, The Hitch-Hike, and so many others.
Then, in the 1970s, people just stood around and grooved. That was until 1977. That’s when Saturday Night Fever, in its white-suited John Travolta, hit the big screen. From that point on, we found The Bump, The Hustle, and all else Disco.
During the 1980s and 1990s, I’d say it is pretty safe to say that most people stood in place and shook a little here or there, trying to catch the rhythm of the song on the floor.
I’m not sure when dancing morphed into its popular form today. Nine times out of ten, when the “in crowd” dances with one another, they look more like they are trying to screw with their clothes on, for all the world to see.
Oh, I know. I’m getting old.
And I’ve always been a prude.
But I liked dance much more when it was a little less pornographic. Now, after I’ve seen someone dance at a Super Bowl halftime or a New Year’s Eve extravaganza, I feel like I’ve witnessed an incident of public indecency.
TikTok is the big thing now. Some people love to be seen, and social media is the perfect vessel for it. Or maybe it is their chance for those 15 minutes of fame we all are supposed to have.
I’m still waiting for my fifteen minutes, by the way. And I can tell you, unequivocally, it won’t be doing a dance. Oh, I love to dance, and there was a time when I held my own. But these days, it is better left unseen. Like the Loch Ness Monster and Bigfoot. And not in a legendary way.
Oh, that dance. It is much more than a series of movements that match the speed and rhythm of a piece of music. It is an art form, a vessel of expression. When we hear a piece of music that moves us, it is nearly impossible not to join in by singing or dancing. It is a connection to our innermost selves, our creative souls.
We all know the feeling. It is one of the most incredible things about being human, when we can feel that connection to our very cores.
That Boogie Woogie is an inside job, just waiting to come out.
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“Dance is the hidden language of the soul”
― Martha Graham
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“Let us read, and let us dance; these two amusements will never do any harm to the world.”
― Voltaire
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“And hand in hand, on the edge of the sand,
They danced by the light of the moon.”
― Edward Lear, The Owl and the Pussycat
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The problem of two left feet. Or is it?
