On dancing

My Jewish acquaintance from NYC is a great dancer. She has been encouraging me to take up dancing for quite some time. I’m not a fan of dancing, unless it’s a spontaneous dance. When it comes to what I call ”organized” dancing such as cha-cha, or any other where it takes two to tango, I’m not a fan. Why? It might be psychological, because in dancing one side must yield and another side must lead. There’s no other way. Both sides can’t lead and wear the proverbial pants in the dancing relationship. Some say dancing is a good way to learn compromise.

One side shows when to pirouette and the other side does the pirouetting. It’s giving up control to someone else, albeit on a symbolic scale, but still. Then again, sometimes life gives us no choice but to accept that we no longer lead, but our reality is defined, wholly or partly, by someone else. Even the most powerful and cunning can find themselves in a reversal of roles scenario when they least expect it. Dance, to me, illustrates it well, when in a mocking scenario the dominant party is redefined as the one doing the pirouetting and not being happy about it.

The fact is, however, that dancing serves many purposes, not just for entertainment or ridicule. Dancing can be a form of ritual – to show unity of a group or a nation for example. Indeed, national anthems serve that purpose and national dances and anthems often go hand-in-hand. The national anthem reflects a given nation’s mentality shaped by its history. It’s a sort of international relations business card, if you will. For example, unlike most national anthems that glorify their nations, the Hungarian national anthem is a litany of suffering and defeat. How does it impact the psyche of Hungarian citizens is an interesting question. Some anthems even feature foreign heads of state, such as Napoleon in the Polish anthem.

Dancing can also be a form of ritual to connect with the other world beyond ours. Specific movements, often done by women, are meant to conjure up brave ancestors or even entities existing outside of our realm for worship, consult or prophecy about a given nation’s future.

Dancing, of course, can be used as a universal language between parties where, sometimes singing, all sorts of emotions are expressed. They say mathematics is a universal language, but so is dancing as each move can be imbued with meaning.