(Don’t) Dance

I was at the Box, a club type thing that plays that plays techno. Dancing away merrily, I looked around at other people dancing. The thing that struck me is how while people were dancing in couples or groups they were more or less keeping to themselves.

Then I thought back, how when the waltz was first around it was very scandalous because the man and woman were touching and dancing quite closely! Contrast this to people at the Box who stand about one metre apart.

So I phoned my mother and got her to fill me in on the history of dancing. When she was my age she was in London and went to dances where they all did the twist (that’s so cool!) but, she said, between doing the twist people danced more traditional ballroom like the quick step and fox trot.

She also remembered going to a social evening at the Blue Moon Ballroom. Everyone was doing the traditional ballroom steps, except for a small group in the corner who were do the new rock ‘n’ roll steps. However the manager asked those troublemakers to leave.

What’s it like now? You just get out there and dance. 1 2 3 4. I guess back in the days of ballroom dancing, holding gloved hands and resting the other hand on the shoulder or waist was significant because it was about the limits of physical contact. Now there’s no need to dance closely with someone if you know you’re going to be seeing them naked in a few hours.

Now that sounds really cynical. Like my generation are a bunch of promiscuous techno sluts or something. Which of course is not true, but it does happen.

The only solution is to not dance. Do cool things instead.