The Reasons Why We Dance
- As a choreographer, I get asked to share my opinion about a myriad of dance-related
- topics, from the practical, like “How can dance help you get in shape?” to the existential, like “Is
- my dancing a projection of my self-image?”. But the question I think matters most is: why do
- people dance? What is about moving our bodies to a song we love that is so joyfully Pavlovian?
- Why do we watch videos and take lessons on something that could be labeled as trivial? Why do
- we love it so?
- There are the obvious answers. We dance for physical fitness, mental clarity, emotional
- stability, and other such pluses. However, all these benefits could be attained by other means –
- though I confess I have yet to find a better alternative than a great “cha cha”* to lift both one’s
- heart rate and spirits. There must be something glorious about dancing that is more than just
- intangible. We cannot seem to explain it, yet we all know it so well that we do not hesitate to
- tap our feet to a Gershwin melody or pulse with the percussion of a samba rhythm.
- Perhaps dance is the way we express ourselves when words are insufficient. The joy we
- feel over newfound love, the determination we have in the face of great sorrow or adversity, the
- passionate fire of our youth, and the peacefulness of our softer and more graceful years – maybe
- they are never expressed more fully than through a waltz, or a tango, or a jive. We all want to
- be understood, and if we could truly speak the words that describe our feelings, how deep and
- powerful they would surely be. But alas, those words never seem to come to us just right. Maybe
- dance is simply a translator for the human heart.
- Perhaps dance is the medium through which we show the world who we truly are and who
- we can be. All of us, if we are honest, believe deep down that we are not ordinary. We know
- ourselves to be wonderfully unique, with many layers of personality and talent woven in such a
- way that no one on earth could possibly have our same make-up. We know it. We just do not
- always know how to prove it. Maybe dance gives us the opportunity. And perhaps dance is how
- we choose to remember, how we hold on to the past. It is how we relive __ fun-filled days of
- our youth or __ time we looked into their eyes and knew they were the one. It is our tribute to
- the heroes of yesterday who jitterbugged like carefree boys and girls, when tomorrow they would
- march as men and women to defend freedom’s cause. It is the chance to be __ princess again,
- waiting for __ outstretched hand and the call to __ romance that is graceful, true, and not as
- forgotten as the cynics say. When we dance, we can remember them all a little better, feel the
- butterflies once again, and if only for a moment, return to the purest part of our lives when time
- was of no matter…for we were dancing.
- Why do we dance? Every answer will be different, and that is as it should be. Perhaps the
- better question is, “Why would we not?”
*Cha Cha: an energetic modern dance.
(Available in: https://dancewithmeusa.com/why-we-dance-the-reasons/ – text especially adapted for this test).
Mark the INCORRECT statement about the article.