Dance Stance

You can tell a lot about the difference between the organized and the unorganized world by looking at old and new styles of dancing.

Old time dancing such as sequences are representative of the organized world. These days, house, techno and rave rule the airwaves.

Old time sequence dances involve repeating patterns of 16 steps. There are lots of different sequence dances such as quicksteps, waltzes, foxtrots, tangos, rumbas and cha chas. There are in turn many different patterns of steps for each of these different types of sequence dances.

Sequence dances have many barriers to entry:

1. You have to learn the sequence of steps in advance. You can't just turn up at a dance and start dancing.

2. There is a line of dance, a direction that you follow around the dance floor. This sort of dancing is well suited to collectivist societies where cohesion is important and everyone "sings from the same hymnbook" and knows what direction they are going in.

3. You rely absolutely on the leader or compere. Because you can dance different sequences to the same music, if you did not have a compere or take any notice of his or her announcements, you would not know what type of sequence it was.

4. You have to follow the sequences as set down by a ruling body which issues any new approved sequences to its members. Because everyone dances the same steps, even and smooth movement and flow is the differentiator between dancing couples.

Contrast that with dance music: techno, rave, house, ambient, rap and all the other types of music around in the nightclubs these days.

There are no entry barriers:

1. You just walk in and the bass takes over and propels you. You don't have to learn any sequences: any style or movements will do.

2. There is much more diversity in behavior. Ravers show off in different ways, through the brand image they create in what they wear, the energy they put into dancing, the enjoyment they have. People dress and dance anyway they feel good in and comfortable with.

3. Energy is distributed throughput the mass of dancers: people gradually change position on the dance floor as people come and go. The nearest thing to a compere is the DJ, who typically does not say anything much.

4. There are no governing bodies, just underground networks of informal contacts and groups of like-minded, fun loving individuals who just want to dance.

5. Ravers still have to take into account the effect of their dancing on others. There is more physical contact between ravers because people dance in different ways and directions. But if you end up spending more time avoiding people than dancing to the beat then you can always go off and find some more space.

In the unorganized world, raving is both therapy and exercise. You work on your body and close off your mind. Rave on.

Author: Simon Buckingham

What do you think?

To make a comment to the author, send e-mail to simon@unorgan.com

 

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