Sure Special, you can rub my velvet anytime! 
Pat, I hear DeeLite’s “Groove is in the Heart” almost every time I am at a club. It’s actually my favorite song to dance to. Even if I’m pooped, I have to get up for that song.
Psycat, not every guy at the club is there lookin’ for bootie. Some of us are there just to have a good time. (Not really relationship material, sheesh!) 
“Teaching without words and work without doing are understood by very few.”
-Tao Te Ching
Oh boy. I think I put my foot in my mouth this time. Of course I know that. I’ll try to rephrase, I don’t go to the clubs expecting to have an intellectual, meaningful conversation with a guy, I don’t go looking for beaver food either. I go to dance and hang out with friends and have a good time.
So, not that their not relationship material, they’re not even applicants. make sense?
If your head is wax, don’t walk in the sun.
-Benjamin Franklin
More often than not, my SO absolutely refuses to dance. Once, I dragged him to a salsa club. After half a pitcher of margaritas, not only was he shaking his ass all over the dance floor, he was having a blast and ended up outdancing our whole group! Ah, the amazing properties of alcohol.
It’s ok Psycat, my feelings weren’t hurt. …sniff… Really they weren’t…sob…sniffle…
“Teaching without words and work without doing are understood by very few.”
-Tao Te Ching
I love to dance. My Honey is a bit shy with it, but if the music moves him, gets those long legs moving in a truly unique style. We learned to really dance here in the juke joints of Mississippi, a pretty down wild style.
That’s now been immortalized in a great song by some friends, Southern Culture On The Skids, in a song called “I Learned To Dance In Mississippi”. It’s about us. ::
:: Now we’re a spectacle…
I have a feeling that I would like structured dances like ballroom dancing, ones that you are expected to move just so. But I am absolutely awful at free-form dancing. Elaine Benes and I are one and the same when it comes to that kind of dancing. I feel extremely out of place and foolish when I try, so I tend to avoid dances altogether (which is very hard if you do any socializing at all in Utah Valley!)
Well, my point, Eve, was that if the music takes you on yond, the feet follow. Maybe informal- at someone’s house first- dancing lessons could help the wallflowers gain some confidence. A few intoxicants, either imbibed or whispered, do the trick too.
Gads! The last time I tried to dance I ended up on “America’s Most Wanted.”
As if it’s not enough to be a truly horrible dancer, I’m 6’-4" and can’t exactly blend inta the crowd. The first time MsCrick dragged me onto a dance floor she dissolved in laughter and told me I looked like a feckin’ giraffe what someone had plugged inta a wall socket.
If the image hadn’t been so damned funny I think my feelin’s mighta been hurt . . .
Dr. Watson
“I’ve had this body all my life, and I plan to take it with me when I go.”
All the guys I have known that really like to dance, and are good at it, have been gay. I dunno if that means a damn thing, though.
I have learnt a little bit of pseudo-dancing for when I’m on stage, but I’ve never really grooved to it in any big way - you have to be in dance mood, which is a rarity. And may take alcohol or a similar hormonal imbalance (like having laugh-out-loud fun etc) to kick in.
I’m also a bit gangly and look silly rather than graceful, which doesn’t help. So it’s fine if I’m doing a silly dance, but really you can forget any kind of complicated, or romantic, or even just smooth dance steps coming from my feet.
-PIGEONMAN-
Returns!
The Legend Of PigeonMan - By Popular Demand! Enjoy, enjoy!
I think my attitude towards dance is best summed up by Zyada’s post: http://www.straightdope.com/ubb/Forum4/HTML/003585.html
I remember being struck at the time at how it was exactly the opposite of what dance does for me. Except for those rare occasions where my partner is particularly captivating and a fair amount of alcohol has flowed under the bridge, the wild exhilaration of dance fills me with mild but waning interest. So I tend to treat dance as more of an intellectual exercise. I like English Country dancing, which is all patterns, and I dislike the “go out on the dance floor and strut your funky stuff” type of dancing, because there are no rules. I suspect most guys who dislike dancing are like me – reached maturity in an era in which dance was not taught. There weren’t enough “structured” dances around to make it worth learning (even if we weren’t shy and plumb out of Powdermilk biscuits).
So guys don’t dance 'cause:
from GuanoLad:
Gee, thanks, now I really feel better.
I like to dance, but not if I’m the only one (in public any way). I’ve been told I’m pretty good (at least at the free form stuff). I do okay, feel a little goofy, and think that’s part of knowing you’re doing it right.
I have taken some ballroom lessons in the past and can muster up a foxtrot (2-step for you country lovers) and a waltz. Latin dances I’m not so good at - something about the hips. I did want to learn tango, but without a partner… (Insert cliche here.)
Club music gets old, but music with a good beat is a strong incentive. I feel the rhythm, gotta move.
I think many guys don’t like to dance because they don’t feel coordinated enough with it. The free form style is too unstructured, and if you watch most people, it really looks rather silly. Whereas the structured dances require practice and an ability to follow step patterns. Of course another major obstacle is being able to keep time, and keep track of moving your feet, body, head, arms, partner, etc.
If you can con them into lessons, they may learn to tolerate it. Of course, leading is a hurdle. I tried dancing with my mom once after taking a few lessons. Not being a great dancer, I was at my wits end as she tried to lead the whole time. Guess that comes from my dad.
Free form dancing, baby. I don’t know any actual dance moves, I just feel the beat, and move to it. IMHO, not moving your hands around too much really cuts down on the sillyness factor.
When it’s a good night, and I can really submurge myself in the music, well, it’s almost like a drug to me (Or at least as close as I’ll ever get to a drug, anyway).
I would love to learn ballroom and swing.
You say “cheesy” like that’s a BAD thing.
I believe some people are missing the point. It is not about how you look to other people while dancing. Life is too short to worry about that. I love to dance and I realize I am not that great but I enjoy it. Unfortunately, I don’t have anyone to dance with most of the time. I am the guy who ends up dancing with the women whose husbands won’t dance with them. Satisfying but not very fullfilling.
What she said.
Except for the part about pregnant women.
Non-dancer, here.
It’s not that I can’t dance. It’s not that I’m no good at it. I just don’t think of it as being much fun. I’d rather sit at a table enjoying a nice conversation, or if the music is good, listening to the band.
I saw the Cherry Poppin’ Daddies last year with some friends. They seemed puzzled that I wouldn’t go out and mingle and dance. What can I say? I loved the music and was listening to it. They are who I went to see, and I wanted to see them. (Besides, I was doing some ska horn line writing at the time and I wanted to see how they were doing it.)
RE Country line dancing: Who was it that said that line dancing is for people with no imagination? Good observation.
Mr. K’s Link of the Month:
Beautifully stated, David. This is how I feel as well. I don’t really give a damn what people think I look like, I’m having a damn good time! And, like Sealemon said, it’s like a drug. I can be stone cold sober(don’t laugh!) and with a great hypnotic beat and the right atmosphere, it’s unbelievable. A DJ can read the crowd and work them into this state if he/she is really good. It’s awesome when you have a whole room full of people feeling this way. Everyone is doing their own dance, but we are all moving together, and as one…
Sorry, didn’t mean to wax philosophic on y’all.
“Teaching without words and work without doing are understood by very few.”
-Tao Te Ching
!!!I HATE DANCING!!! (to the point of being phobic) …but you ladies just don’t seem to get it. You see, I have all the rhythm of an eggplant on valium, and when I try to dance I wind up looking like a marionette having a seizure. Don’t try to get me to dance, I can’t and I won’t. Problem is I’m not much of a conversationalist either, so…
It’s a long way to heaven, but only three short steps to hell.
All you guys who are too full of dignity to go out on the dance floor and “make fools of yourselves” - I dimly recall from my long-ago disco days that I went out to clubs and all the girls would stand around the dancefloor like cattle in a holding pen, waiting waiting waiting for Prince Charming to come up and ask them to dance. The guys I met at the clubs who asked me to dance are the ones who “got some”. The guys who would just stand there holding up the bar did NOT “get some” except from their female counterparts after last call. And let me tell you the non-dancers looked like desperate idiots standing there all night, I don’t know why they bothered to get dressed and pay money and come in, they could have just stayed home and pounded down a sixpack. Maybe they were hoping all the female alcoholics would gather around and buy them drinks.
Well, speaking only for myself, I have no interest in dancing. I don’t do it, I don’t necessarily care to watch someone else do it. From around 8th grade on till I stopped going to school dances (or they stopped having them) , I was generally IN the band, not on the floor.
Ranger Jeff
*The Idol of American Youth *
Riders In The Sky
Not really. No more so that someone that does the tango. Many dances have structured moves. It’s how you apply those moves, and how comfortable you are doing them that counts. Some Line Dances have extreamly intricate steps, and take as much practice as learning swing. But it’s still easy to tell someone that can really dance, and someone that just learns the moves.