Dancing - Visual Noise

On Friday night, I was sick of sitting at home alone feeling sorry for myself, so I drove around and ended up going to a dueling piano bar not too far from my house. I just sat in the corner by myself, drinking some water and listened to the music. A couple observations from that evening:

Observation 1:
Dancing is weird. I’m not just talking about specific dances like the lawn mower or roger rabbit or running man or worm or sprinkler – all of which were on display at the piano bar – I’m talking about the concept of dancing in general. I realize I’m the minority and that most humans enjoy dancing in some form or another, but I really just don’t get it. I’m perfectly content to keep my arms tucked nicely by my side and can’t imagine a scenario where I feel like I would want to express myself by flailing my arms over my head.

This is the thing…I understand and appreciate dance as an art. I enjoy watching professionals dance in dance concerts or ballet or whatever, and can appreciate the immense athleticism, talent, and dedication it takes to become a good dancer and perfect the art. That’s not what I’m talking about. You see, I was a music major in college and I feel there are lots of parallels between becoming a good musician and a good dancer (sans the athleticism). Both require natural talent coupled with years of practice and study to develop the skills. What I’m talking about are people who go out on dance floor in public and start moving their bodies in crazy, awkward and silly ways that is just plain weird. Does that really make people happy? How is that enjoyable? I think I’m just missing that gene, because I swear and don’t ever remember a time where I enjoyed dancing. Heck, I don’t remember a time where I danced without being forced to in order to conform to social norms. I’ve certainly never been in a situation where I was in a room full of people, listening to music, and thought to myself, “You know what? This music is great and all, and there is a nice beat, but I feel like the experience just isn’t quite complete….maybe if I start gyrating and throwing my arms in the air and spinning around it’ll fill the void I feel right now…shoot, maybe it would be even better if I did it in close proximity to other people…”

Clearly, this only worsens after people have started drinking and lose their inhibitions, which clearly God gave to us on purpose to prevent us from acting like uncoordinated monkeys in front of other people. Inhibitions are good. They keep us from doing stupid things.

If you go back to the similarities between dancing and music, watching a professional dance concert or recital is like listening to a professional musician. It’s great, inspirational, and beautiful. Going to a club, or dance, or party….it’s basically like having grown adults walk up to a piano in the room and just start banging on it like a 3 year old kid. It’s not enjoyable. Imagine you are at a club, hanging out, and there is a piano in the room. You’ve never taken a piano lesson and don’t know how to play, but you walk up to it anyways and just start banging on it, with a huge smile on your face, having the time of your life while everyone else laughs. THAT’S WHAT DANCING IS! VISUAL NOISE! Then, while you are banging on the piano, you make contact with a girl or guy and they walk over to you and sit next to you and start banging on it next to you…a terrible duet. That’s what I felt like watching these drunk people dance together at the club.

Observation 2: As clearly evidenced by the rant on dancing above, I’m a boring person. It’s just the way I am. I won’t dance, I’ll never sing karaoke, and I’m just not the type of person to sit a table of friends a laugh and have a good time. That isn’t to say I don’t enjoy myself and am not happy, I just don’t demonstrate it like most the world seems to. I wish I weren’t so boring, but it doesn’t seem likely to change. So, if I’ve ever been in a social setting with you in the past and was totally boring, I’m sorry. I’m just missing that gene I guess.