# Is marching akin to dancing? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 27, 2010, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-marching-akin-to-dancing/534022 "2010-03-27T15:46:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2010, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-marching-akin-to-dancing/534022/1 "2010-03-27T15:46:00Z")
It is, isn’t it? I just had one of my many epiphanies while watching a “Yakult” commercial, wherein a bunch of the little bottles march to a drumbeat. I found myself “sit-marching” to that drumbeat. Peace, mangeorge ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2010, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-marching-akin-to-dancing/534022/2 "2010-03-27T15:56:19Z")
Have you seen [“Triumph des Willens”](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcFuHGHfYwE)? It’s still viewed as the seminal aesthetic representation of fascism, and a lot of it is marching. In this sense, you could easily say marching is dancing–fascist dancing. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2010, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-marching-akin-to-dancing/534022/3 "2010-03-27T16:00:14Z")
Well, yeah, in the sense that you move to the music and your work is choreographed. There are a lot of different ways to march, though… I used to play trombone in high school marching band, and our marching was more like walking to the beat in unison, though for field shows we had as many as 50 drills (meaning 50 different places we had to be at some point in the show.) It’s actually tougher than you might think to sprint all over a football field while marching in unison, playing your music from memory and making sure you arrive at your exact location at exactly the right time, only to have sprint somewhere else a few bars later. [Everything you ever wanted to know about marching.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marching_band) [Example of a drill book.](http://www.pyware.com/images/011707/PW-InsideLeftSideLG7.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2010, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-marching-akin-to-dancing/534022/4 "2010-03-27T16:08:24Z")
Oh, and sincee we’re at it, [Ultimate Video Game Halftime Show](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QNI3W8UB-s). (ftr, these are not easy drills, either.) ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2010, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-marching-akin-to-dancing/534022/5 "2010-03-27T20:03:27Z")
[This clip from Betty Grable’s “Pin Up Girl”](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTVXu0zP068), starting at 3:50, shows dancers performing after probably a few days rehearsal what takes weeks to train soildiers to perform. ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2010, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-marching-akin-to-dancing/534022/6 "2010-03-27T20:30:25Z")
> [@Slithy\_Tove](#): > > [This clip from Betty Grable’s “Pin Up Girl”](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTVXu0zP068), starting at 3:50, shows dancers performing after probably a few days rehearsal what takes weeks to train soildiers to perform. Impressive. Betty can cause me to bemoan the passing of shapely legs on modern women. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2010, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-marching-akin-to-dancing/534022/7 "2010-03-27T23:50:28Z")
One way marching is like dancing is that men do it because they have to, but women enjoy it. [New Zealand Leisure Marching](http://www.leisuremarching.org.nz/) ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2010, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-marching-akin-to-dancing/534022/8 "2010-03-28T04:04:16Z")
I think marching is like dancing in that the group moves as one “body” where in dancing it is actually just one body. I was a marching band geek in HS (played trombone too - hi **olives**!) and a single marcher is not always very graceful. However, when you put everyone together and they’re making moving shapes, it all looks graceful from afar. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2010, 6:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-marching-akin-to-dancing/534022/9 "2010-03-28T06:37:01Z")
I say they are different because marching requires movements that pretty much anyone can handle. But dancing seems to involve muscles that I can’t even move. Even if I do get them to move, they won’t stay in synch. And I’m the type of person who automactically marches in step with music and will speak in the key of a song. ---
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2010, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-marching-akin-to-dancing/534022/10 "2010-03-28T18:12:40Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > I say they are different because marching requires movements that pretty much anyone can handle. But dancing seems to involve muscles that I can’t even move. Even if I do get them to move, they won’t stay in synch. > > And I’m the type of person who automactically marches in step with music and will speak in the key of a song. Disagree on the first point, I’ve seen many a guy _in the military_ who couldn’t march to save his own life. The biggest thing that ever seems to trip people up? I mean, other than actually tripping from time to time? The guys who can’t swing their arms opposite from their legs. As in, swing them like you NORMALLY would when walking. Some guys do this weird stiff-legged toy robot walk instead. It’s weird, and they often don’t realize they’re doing it when marching. And marching isn’t always the entire group going in unison, although it often is. Sometimes you’ll have choreographed marching routines where folks are marching in all different directions but it somehow all plays together as one whole thing. A drill team I was on once did a marching routine based on Micheal Jackson’s “Thriller”, using almost only approved Air Force drill movements (I think they had to get a non-reg “Dress Left Dress” approved by the judges ahead of time to make it look right for the show.) ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2010, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-marching-akin-to-dancing/534022/11 "2010-03-28T19:20:33Z")
> [@Raguleader](#): > > “Dress Left Dress” What I want to know is, why do they _talk_ so funny. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2010, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-marching-akin-to-dancing/534022/12 "2010-03-28T19:28:12Z")
> [@mangeorge](#): > > What I want to know is, why do they _talk_ so funny. 😉 What WE want to know, is why Y’ALL talk funny! 😃 You want funny talking, listen to a recording of the Spirit of Aggieland Marching Band, and tell me if you can make out what the guy is shouting at the beginning. Took me YEARS before I finally figured out what it was:D ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2010, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-marching-akin-to-dancing/534022/13 "2010-03-28T19:41:29Z")
> [@Raguleader](#): > > What WE want to know, is why Y’ALL talk funny! 😃 > > You want funny talking, listen to a recording of the Spirit of Aggieland Marching Band, and tell me if you can make out what the guy is shouting at the beginning. Took me YEARS before I finally figured out what it was:D Which event, or date? ---
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2010, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-marching-akin-to-dancing/534022/14 "2010-03-28T19:54:52Z")
> [@mangeorge](#): > > Which event, or date? Helps if I complete a thought before sharing: Whenever they perform “The Aggie War Hymn”, also known as “Hullabaloo” [Link](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOd_SulAQOk) ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2010, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-marching-akin-to-dancing/534022/15 "2010-03-28T20:27:19Z")
> [@Raguleader](#): > > Helps if I complete a thought before sharing: > > Whenever they perform “The Aggie War Hymn”, also known as “Hullabaloo” > > [Link](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOd_SulAQOk) Haha! I did catch “Hullabaloo” at the end. At least I think I did. Y’all take your football seriously, don’y you? Well, except for like when I was in Dallas in the 80s I think it was, and they were trying to give away free Dallas Cowboy tiekets every where I went. I talked to a few people about it. _Not_ terribly forgiving, are you? And y’all do use some bad words. 😛 I’m not a fan, nor am I non-fan, so I guess I don’t understand. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2010, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-marching-akin-to-dancing/534022/16 "2010-03-28T21:25:58Z")
The disco music craze tapped right into that notion, as disco music is generally scored at 120 beats per minute, which is the marching cadence. Next time you see a video of marching, substitute “Last Dance” in your head for the music being played. ---
**Author:** ![Atomic\_Alex](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atomic_alex/32/175_2.png) [@Atomic\_Alex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atomic_Alex)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2010, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-marching-akin-to-dancing/534022/17 "2010-04-01T15:11:34Z")
How many of the people here saying marching is easy have actually _tried_ marching in unison? It may look easy but it really isn’t and it only takes one poor marcher to throw the others off. I struggled mightily with it at the start but eventually it clicked and now I wonder why I found it so difficult. However some people _never_ seem to get the hang of it. It’s like riding a bike, once you know how to do it its a skill you never forget and amuses my young nephews and nieces mightily. Oddly enough its much more difficult to march slowly than quickly, everyone had trouble with the ‘slow step’ _(can’t recall the actual term)_ part of the routine and the whole thing was made more difficult because we were practicing on our heavy rubber-soled boots which didn’t provide the tactile and auditory feedback of the older leather-soled boots and made keeping time harder. I can’t however dance to save my life… 😉 ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2010, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-marching-akin-to-dancing/534022/18 "2010-04-02T01:37:32Z")
> [@Disposable Hero](#): > > I can’t however dance to save my life… 😉 Anyone, I repeat, anyone, can do [**this**](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Line_dancing). Yep, it is marching. Please feel free to use some of my excess commas. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2010, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-marching-akin-to-dancing/534022/19 "2010-04-02T02:21:06Z")
> [@Disposable Hero](#): > > How many of the people here saying marching is easy have actually _tried_ marching in unison? It may look easy but it really isn’t and it only takes one poor marcher to throw the others off. > > I struggled mightily with it at the start but eventually it clicked and now I wonder why I found it so difficult. However some people _never_ seem to get the hang of it. It’s like riding a bike, once you know how to do it its a skill you never forget and amuses my young nephews and nieces mightily. > > Oddly enough its much more difficult to march slowly than quickly, everyone had trouble with the ‘slow step’ _(can’t recall the actual term)_ part of the routine and the whole thing was made more difficult because we were practicing on our heavy rubber-soled boots which didn’t provide the tactile and auditory feedback of the older leather-soled boots and made keeping time harder. > > I can’t however dance to save my life… 😉 Marching slowly is harder because you have to balance your weight for longer periods of time. When marching more quickly (or running), it’s not as important because you spend less time between footfalls. ---
**Author:** ![ryobserver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b2d939/32.png) [@ryobserver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ryobserver)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2010, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-marching-akin-to-dancing/534022/20 "2010-04-03T01:02:54Z")
If you want a serious historian’s thoughts on this very topic, hunt up a copy of _Keeping Together in Time: Dance and Drill in Human History_ by William McNeill. [http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog/MCNKEE.html](http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog/MCNKEE.html)