Have you ever been moved by Dance?

[Fiddle Peghead]

Music, for instance, "Bastards of Young" by the Replacements makes me want to cry. The R.P. McMurphy baseball moment, "Somebody get me a weiner before I die" makes me want to cry. And don't even get me started on Truman Capote's short story "A Christmas Memory" (it makes me want to cry). They all moved me. But, I can say without equivocation, that I've never been moved AT ALL by dance. I'm convinced that the only people who appreciate dance, are dancers. Anybody feel different?

[Daowajan]

I have two left feet, and my last college put on a dance production with a couple of numbers that nearly made me cry. It was great.

[tavalla]

There was a Phillip (sp?) Genty production of a show called "Stowaways" I saw once. When the show ended, I was certain that it must just have been the interval - it felt too short to be a full performance, as though I'd only been watching for half an hour. Nope, it was the full show, considerably more than the half-hour it felt like. I was absolutely transported.

FWIW, I have three left feet (two just ain't enough for how clumsy I am on a dance floor). I can't dance to save my life.

[WV_Woman]

My church's dance team has had me in tears before.

I soooooooooooo didn't get the dancing gene.

[LolaCocaCola]

Watching a bellydance performance by Delilahin Seattle moved me.

Seeing a Ballanchine production of Swan Lake at Lincoln Center moved me.

[Mockingbird]

Afternoon of the Faun made me cry.

[booklover]

I've seen the Alvin Ailey group twice (once from the audience, once as a crew member) and both were amazing--surprisingly, more so as a crew member than when I was in the audience.

[Johanna]

Yes. The Silk Road Dance Company gave a performance that moved me to tears, it was so beautiful. They did many beautiful dances, but the one that really got me was an ancient, pre-Christian dance from Georgia (in the Caucasus, not the Southern U.S. Georgia). It was done by three women in honor of the Moon Goddess in celebration of the birth of a daughter. It was so beautiful and moving I was in awe and tears streamed down my face.

[Tamerlane]

Odd one - I was child watching the Peter Sellers film The Bobo, which has a brief scene with a flamenco dancer at a club. I was utterly captivated and quite moved by that tiny, but intense dance scene. Dunno if it was my age or what, but that's about the only time I can cite.

- Tamerlane

[Humble Servant]

My 5-year old ballerina has had us checking all of the ballet videos out of the library. We're also going to watch Singing in the Rain tomorrow.

The dance that really moved me, though, was back in 1978. The room was dark, the music was slow and my date was 19 years old.

[Enigma42]

I think there are a couple of categories that people may fall into here. We've heard from the 'clumsy but moved' group here, but I don't think that was what notcynical was really getting at. I don't feel that the only people who appreciate dance are dancers, but I do agree that it just doesn't do anything at all for some people.

Personally, I think that the part of my brain that would be responsible for dance related processing is either non-functional or devoted to something else entirely (like storing useless trivia, perhaps?). I seem to be completely unable to appreciate dance in any way. I cannot distinguish between good and bad dancing unless people are actually falling over. Music does not ever move me to feel like dancing, I may feel like nodding my head or tapping my foot. Watching a dance performance does not generate any emotions in me whatsoever.

Whenever I have enjoyed a 'dance' program, it is only the other aspects that have an effect on me. For instance, watching ballet may still be enjoyable for me, because of the music. If I were to close my eyes and simply listen, it would be the same experience. However, if I were to plug my ears, and only watch the dancers, I would not find it interesting. I can certainly appreciate the athleticism and the devotion of the dancers, and I respect their abilities. But I just cannot extract the 'art' from it: it feels exactly the same to me as watching a simple athletic display.

I'm sure that this is incomprehensible to some people! There was a thread not too long ago about people who don't like music at all, in any form. Many people (myself included) really cant understand this, but it doesn't seem to be all that common. My guess is that 'dance appreciation impairment' is much more common, perhaps alongside 'abstract art appreciation impairment'. I would also guess that there is a fairly strong gender correlation in this particular condition. Of course, I have no cite or any kind of scientific backing here. I'm just extrapolating based on my personal experience.

[Johanna]

Enigma42: In Without Feathers, Woody Allen satirized the very thing you're talking about. He wrote a first-person essay telling the point of view of a man who cannot appreciate mime. Mime, for crying out loud!