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Mark T. B. Carroll ([personal profile] mtbc) wrote2016-02-23 08:43 pm

Dancing, or not

I don't dance; not as a matter of policy, but because it doesn't come naturally. I enjoy music and would probably like expressing that through dancing if I could, but appreciative experience of music doesn't for me seem at all wired to kinetic improvisation, even when I am alone. I might be spurred into a springy step or suchlike but then it never leads on to anything further.

I wondered if casual dancing is just a matter of practice but my impression from a friend who has tried lessons for a few years is that it's just how we are. Indeed, if I am somehow expected or required to move in response to music, that's enough of a distraction that it stops me from simply being able to enjoy it.

On the contrary, I have known people, especially American women, who will spontaneously burst out into little dances when they are happy about something. I wonder at that difference.