Why You Should Dance

Dancing.  Some people love it.  Some people hate it.

Some people seem to have no rhythm.  Some people just seem good at it.

Remember that movie Hitch?  Will Smith’s character is trying to help this uncoordinated guy get a girl, so what does he do?  He tries to teach him to dance.

I’m convinced that people that are just good at dancing got it from their family or culture.  Ever notice that Hispanic people seem to all be able to dance?  It’s a part of their culture.  Early on, they are around dancing.

Next, take the average white male.  Dancing is absolutely unusual!  The first time most of us were in a setting to cut a rug was at some awkward middle school dance.

Still, even those of us who find dancing to feel like visiting the dentist, we are all awed when we watch someone do it well.  It is both powerful and gentle, sensual and graceful, provocative and touching.  How awesome it is to watch two people hit all the right moves at all the right times.  It’s

no wonder that a style, like ballroom dancing, which most people once considered an ‘old folks’ thing’, became such a huge hit on TV with Dancing with the Stars.

How the heck do you get good at it then?

Practice…Try and fail and try again…Learn from others.

I actually dance.  Yet, I used to hate doing it.  Trouble is this: I married a white girl with a Hispanic heart.  Beth lived in Venezuela for a year after high school and caught the Latino bug.  I’m a white German who grew up headbanging to AC/DC.  I had to do some learning.

We’ve taken ballroom, salsa, and merengue classes.  We dance in our kitchen, we dance at weddings.  I can’t say I’m awesome at it, but I’m finding that it’s kinda fun.

I practiced, tried and failed and tried again, and learned from others.

To me, this is what life is like: we all want to be the one who can hit all the right moves at all the right times.
This is true, especially of our relationships, including the one we have with God.

 

How do you connect with God?  You practice.  What works for you?  Is it praying in the morning, at night, on the car on the way to school?  Is praying going through a list, or just chatting, or both?  Does reading the Bible help or is it confusing?  Would listening to music or drawing connect you closer to God?  Practice.  Try things out.  Ask others what works for them.  Learn from others.

The same is true of relationships with others.  Everybody wants to figure out the dating thing right away.  Guess what?  You have to dance.  You’ll have to practice, try and fail, and learn from others.  How do you get close to someone?  How do you deal with hurt feelings?  How can you show affection without going further than you want to?  What do you do when you start feeling different about someone? 

Dance, dance, dance. 

Practice, Try and fail and try again, learn from others.

Here are the lyrics to a song by one of my favorite artists, Pierce Pettis.  It’s called “To Dance.”

 

 

To dance
A prospective of bones
Musical bath
It's clearing a path of one's own

Blue jeans and muscle
Or crinoline rustle
You learn it in class or alone
To dance

To dance
It's a gravity thing
Shoes to the earth
Pulling toward a verse that is beckoning

Oh, the dizzy affect
Of rhythm and sweat
Flying like a kid in a swing
To dance

Arms in a moment
Some worried connection
Telling of hearts
Where they don't need protection

A journey in place
A private affection to share
To dance

Is swimming in time
Where passion, and public, and prudence can somehow align

Moving like lovers on top of the covers
Everyone knows it's alright
To dance

Touch without touching
Love without breathing
Hold on and let go without anyone leaving

All of part of the beat you're receiving
And sending back out through your feet

In itself it's complete
God it is sweet
To dance

To dance
The movement confines limbs in a language
That is spoken in three quarter time

And is suddenly gone at the end of the song
And you knew you were safe all along
To dance