Agreed. I didnt really start dance till I was 18, and I couldnt even step from side to side in time to music when I started, because Id only done aerobics classes to that point.
Had a great time from the getgo even though I was absolutely hopeless from a technical perspective for years.
Otara
Are you serious? What were you doing that caused people to actually make a point of telling you that you dance poorly over and over?
Does swaying arhythmically in goth clubs and/or headbanging count? Because if so, then this bisexual dude loves to dance.
If not, not so much.
Maybe he dances like Elaine Benes.
I hate dancing. I hate it with a passion. I was told I just needed some lessons so I enrolled in a class in college with some friends. I had to drop out. Instructor gave me some extra time then eventually told me, “You’ll just have to work on it on your own, we have to move on now.”
Then about two years ago a I went out with a bunch of friends and I was plyed with enough alcohol that they were able to drag me (literally) out to the dance floor. It was every bit as embarrassing as I could have possibly imagined. It was horrible and I still cringe thinking about it.
I fully plan on dancing with my wife at my wedding and nothing more.
Okay, we are going to need one more guy. Here’s how I figure it.
37 men and 38 women who are straight like to dance.
2 gay women like to dance, so they can dance with each other.
9 bi women like to dance, so I assume that means they won’t mind dancing with another girl. There will be one left over.
8 of the 9 gay men can dance with each other as well, which leaves one who can dance with the gay woman (or somebody else).
There’s still one woman left dancing by herself. So somebody needs to step up here. Quick, the music’s about to start.
Gay male, hate dancing.
Basically, I feel very embarrassed–even panicky–when I have to do something in front of other people that I don’t know how to do.
I don’t know how to find the rhythm in music, and I don’t know what I’m supposed to be doing with my body. The best I can manage is an awkward swaying-back-and-forth and shuffling.
(For what it’s worth, I find sex much the same thing. I wonder if the other non-dancers would agree…)
However, I do enjoy games like Dance Dance Revolution, where there are clear instructions to what I should be doing, and there is some sort of goal at the end of it.
I don’t really understand this - there are all kinds of beats in modern music to help you find the rhythm. Do you not notice the heavy main beat that just about all dance music has? (I’m really curious about this, because it stands out like a flashing neon sign to me.)
No, not without concentrating very hard, at least. For whatever reason, I can’t really pick out invididual parts of music, such as the drums. If you gave me a song and told me to clap along to the beat, I would only be guessing.
I loathe dancing. I’ve danced with my wife exactly once in 20 years. At our wedding because we had to. One of the things that makes us compatible is that we both detest dancing (in no small part because dance music sucks).
Usually any dancing I’ve done over the past decade has been at wedings, reunions, charity events and whatnot. I’ve noticed a couple of things:
-There is always at least one couple who has clearly been taking ballroom dancing and are super serious about it. They will break into a very precise Waltz or something with a super intense look on their face as you can see them counting off the beat while dancing to current dance music. It is extremely offputting to watch someone performa a waltz to Lil Jon singing “To the windows! To the walls! As the sweat drips down my balls!!”.
-Empire State of Mind by Jay-Z will cause every person from the NY Metro area to throw their hands in the air and wave them like they just don’t care.
-New York New York by Sinatra often closes out the evening at which point anyone from NY will form a drunken chorus line.
-House of Pain will make everyone on the dance floor jump around (asuming they came to get down).
-Anyone over the age of 30 from New Jersey will go apeshit if Bon Jovi is played.
-There is always one drunk guy who seems to know the entire choreography to Beyonce’s Single Ladies.
-A surprising number of people know the Running Man dance when the DJ plays Ice Ice Baby or Poison by Bel Biv Davoe
-White girls mostly dance in a circle waving their arms screaming “woooo!”
-There will often be a dance off. This has resulted in injuries such as split pants or dislocated shoulders.
-Jewish wedings will typically dance a traditional hora to hava Nagila. At my brother’s weding, it got somewhat out of control and looked more like we were deposing a hated dictator than a celebration of marriage. Two concentric circles were formed that proceeded to spin in oposite directions at an RPM that was clearly unsafe while various individuals would jump in the center and attempt to perform a drunken Cossak dance (or the Running Man…or whatever). My aunt gently pulled my girfriend aside (for her own safety) and simply explained “this is very…wrong.”
-At one recent weding, the best man and a groomsman proceeded to clear a spot on the dance floor and started playing with an imaginary pair of jumpropes. Guests then proceded to jump into the middle and play “double dutch” or do pushups or whathaveyou.
Perhaps you would be more comfortible dancing around to Jack Johnson or O.A.R. or some other jam band?
Singing along with this song doesn’t go over so well elsewhere.
More importantly, Mike, has your newfound love of dancing gotten you knee-deep in some chick action yet?