Amman, Jordan (CNN) -- Forget your preconceptions. Erase your stereotypes -- or at least set them aside for a moment. The Middle East, this ancient land battered by powerful forces and mystical passions, is full of surprises. I have traveled in and out of various countries in the Middle East over the course of decades. All too often and in too many places, aspects of life made it seem as if the clock became stuck in a different time. No longer. Here are five signs the Middle East is changing in ways you may not have expected: 1. Instead of politics and religion, try tango and salsa: It's true; politics and religion remain at the core of much that goes on here. And it is also true that Jordan has stood near the front of Arab modernity in many respects. Still, you might be surprised to find that for many, the passion for tango and salsa weigh more than ideology and sectarianism. After the sun sets over Amman, Jordan's capital, local nightclubs become thick with smoke and crowded with hip, fashionable, often apolitical young Arabs.
@highlight
Frida Ghitis: The Middle East shows signs of change new to a frequent visitor to the region
@highlight
She says Amman, Jordan, club scene with tango, salsa shows yen for modern, secular world
@highlight
She says governments chafe at new use of political humor, and U.S. less an object of awe
@highlight
Ghitis: Israel seen less as root of region's troubles, and even kings say they want democracy
And yet in conversations with people here, and even in the views expressed by an Arab columnist, the old theory that all the @placeholder's problems originate with the Jewish state has little currency.