From: miket@hermes.tcs.com (Michael Turner nmscore Assoc.)
Subject: Re: Why I won't "dance" (was Re: Why I read a.s.a.r.)
Organization: Teknekron Communications Inc.
Date: Thu, 21 Jan 1993 22:21:19 GMT

In article <1993Jan21.174203.21475@dcs.qmw.ac.uk> arodgers@dcs.qmw.ac.uk (Angus H Rodgers) writes:
>In <1993Jan21.114945.17621@infodev.cam.ac.uk>
>sa121@cl.cam.ac.uk (S. Arrowsmith) writes:
>>In article <1993Jan20.192441.20687@dcs.qmw.ac.uk>
>>arodgers@dcs.qmw.ac.uk (Angus H Rodgers) writes:
>>>I think this is because you can't dance if you are always trying to hold
>>>your sexuality inside, out of sight (uptight, not at all all right).
>>>[...]

>>I'm not too convinced that it is something "sexual" -- although the
>>line of reasoning I'm about to give leads there.  At the core of it,
>>I think, is a wish not to be embarassed in any way. [...]
>>[....]

>It's more direct than that, I think: because, in my stiffly awkward and
>robotic attempts to mimic the observed behaviour of others who dance, my
>lack of emotional connection between mind and body becomes immediately 
>apparent; and this lack of feeling is fundamentally sexual. 
>				       ^?^?^?^?^?^?^
>I don't think it's just an accident that dancing is, as you rightly say,
>part of the human mating ritual. A person's physical grace (or lack of it)
>probably expresses their sexuality (or lack of it) pretty directly....

Whoa.  Maybe I'm confused.  Can you tell much about someone's sexuality
from the way they dance, or from whether they dance or not?

Dance is first and foremost display behavior.  Yes, I'm aware of the "move
the way it feels good" school of thought (contact improv people, mainly),
but I don't find that stuff very watchable, taken to its logical extreme.

Some people's sexuality is very continent and private.  Maybe these people
dance less, or don't dance as well, or don't like to as much.  (A reasonable
suspicion, but I don't know for sure.)  If so, that's still no reflection
on the quality, intensity, or integration of their sexuality.

Some people are excellent dancers without injecting much, if any, sexuality
into their dance style.  Others inject all kinds of sexuality into dance, but
aren't very good at it.

The much-noted tendency toward homophilic behavior among top male dancers is,
to me, somewhat counterweighted by the tendency to straitjacket the choreo-
graphy into hetero themes.  That's a case where the personal sexuality of
the dancer and the social sexuality of the dance are essentially at odds --
and yet much of this stuff is very enjoyable.

What does this have to do with the slightly-drunken-boogie-at-random-party
level of dance?  To the extent that it's just a physical release, sexuality
is just a part of it, and a pretty ambiguous one at that.  I would hardly
say it was fundamental.

My credentials in saying all this are not great, but maybe more substantial
than most: both my parents were competition figure skaters, most of my
(many sisters) also, and some of my youth was spent in competitive gymnastics,
some small part of which is dance-like in emphasis.  While it didn't turn
out to be a career path for me, the confluence of music and movement into
choreographed (or improvised) forms still exerts a strong pull on me.
---
Michael Turner
miket@tcs.com
Newsgroups: soc.bi