Forums > Social Chat > Dancing about

Posted: 12th Jan 2003
Dance to me is like scratching an itch. It's not that dance makes me feel anything , per se. It's that when the music and the mood are right, I want to dance. I just feel like it. Just like how I want to scratch when something itches. And then when I dance, that craving is satisfied, which makes me happy.

So dance doesn't cause feelings in me as much as it is a response to a feeling.

-Mike

Certified Mad Doctor and HoP High Priest of Nutella



A buckuht n a hooze! -Valura

Posted: 12th Jan 2003
dancing to me is sacred. sometimes i'm able to dance in a sacred environment, and then it's super special. o.k., last night i was just rocking out at a pub to a local band, i jumped on someone's toes more than ehm five times but everyone had a great time and he didn't seem to mind.
it's hard to explain what i feel while dancing. hhm, when the music/the rythm is right then i don't have to think, my body just flows and i totally enjoy the feelings that are created.
i used to do quite a bit of dancing at festivals to life drums around fires, and because, in my exerience, at an earlier hour, a lot of people would dance to be seen, to pick up someone, or to just watch and wank off (rrrh) i would do 3rd shift - from about 2 am (that's when the ones looking to get/be picked up would be f'*+# and the drunks asleep) til the sun came up. Super special - and real healing energy present.
i got tired of too many wankers and pretentious, chaotic people messing around with magic, i then got to work at large festivals with a lot of bands present. on ´the way back from bathroom breaks i'd usually get in a few minutes of wild dancing, enough to tide me through the day. and since i have experience in energy work i found those festivals quite interesting - many thousands of mundane people, loads of rockin' energy - and lots of work for the urban shaman. fun though. Added bonus - after hours, after the groupies had gone home or gotten laid (guess how much I like them..) alot of times there'd be sessions of members of different bands playing. luckily i'd been pivileged to dance into the wee hours to divine music with lots of very talented musicians.
i've noticed that no matter how tired i was, if i got my body to move we'd create so much energy that i'd feel tremendously exhilarated.
the bands seem to appreciate it too - onetime, i was dancing to the side of the stage (lots of space and noone watching) when a horde of drunks started grabbing at me. after a while it got really annoying and i was busy pushing one guy away when i looked up and noticed that the enire band had turned away from the crowd to the side, as they had noticed the shuffling going on. looked like they were just about ready to jump off stage when the drunks finally took off.
never actually got to thank the sweet guys from the band.
dancing with fire poi i don't actually go into trance as it requires a lot of concentration and the fire burns out so quickly. it get's me super high tho. it's definately useful in creating sacred space. and super stunning. always enjoy rounds of spontanous applause.
too bad so many people seem to be afraid to move their bodies 'cause they're afraid to embarrass themselves. only thing that helps is to not give a shit what other people think. i don't (obviously).

Why?

Posted: 12th Jan 2003
Depends on style of dance and music.

I bellydance.... the music in BD is so colorful and rich and really varies from one tune to the next. So I feel very different from one song to the next while I dance. On the whole, Bellydance makes me feel celebratory and joyful, energized and in a way powerful, but sometimes I am a bit more dark when I dance to it.

African dance, when I do this I feel strong, grounded, almost earthen and really as if I am telling a story. The drums and rhythms are very like a heartbeat, so the dance itself feels very comfortable.

Modern Movement, well, when I do the dances in this form I feel less in touch with myself, and more ridiculous...like my personal expression is lost somewhere in the grandness of the movements.
This allows me to push beyond the "limits" I percieve in myself and really reach out. The music is erratic and is dynamic, which is breaks the mental flow, and is cleansing in a way.

HipHop-Club dance I usually feel pretty detached from anything. I listen to the music and close my eyes and just go. Because of the nature of this music, the dance is non-ruled, aerobic and very personalized. This is very expressionate, personally, while the songs tends to be very similar.

Spanish/Flemenco gives me this feeling of being sexy, not that I am, but I feel that way. The music is passionate and the dance is strong, controlled and yet over flows with passion and real vibrant sensual energy.

It is not all encompassing, that dance makes a person feel a certain way. If that were the case, we would all be dancing merrily everywhere (which probably wouldn't be a bad thing). There are productions I have done where the actual dance movements were sad and depressing.
Since this is for a project of sorts, perhaps it would help to narrow your research information if you asked specifically about when we were freestyling, and what music we were listening to at the time?

On the whole for me, dance of any form is a release and an escape. My frustrations seem to melt away and I can forget whatever reality has handed me that day, at least for a little while.
Good luck with your readings and writings!

[ 13. January 2003, 09:34: Message edited by: Pele ]

Pele
Higher, higher burning fire...making music like a choir
"Oooh look! A pub!" -exclaimed after recovering from a stupid fall
"And for the decadence of art, nothing beats a roaring fire." -TMK

Posted: 13th Jan 2003
I think music can be very exciting sometimes. When I was younger it was i think about chaos, excitment, danger, unity when we'd go to gigs you get thrown about you don't feel like you are or you have to 'express' anything because you are simply part of the whole. I'm sure an image many people can relate to is being squashed sholder to sholder 'pogoing' or whatever they call it (like a f**cking pepsi max ad or something!!)
Dancing can be a way of creating an open space between people everyones a little bit vunerable and a bit more open people make eye contact they smile they feel comftable with each other. I guess this example sounds as if it is do something similar to the first one creating a bond, maybee this sugests an idea of tribalism, of defining your group by a dance as I expect the guy entering dance example 2 and trying to get a bit more of a mosh going would be treated largely with animosity no mater what his intentions... but maybee it was just the wrong time rather than the wrong tribe? Dancing has offered me confidence at times and good feelings like that, its good to feel free and strong and confortable there, especially when you've felt the exact oposite times before. Also it has offered me forms of 'enlightenment' before as often a lot of positive thoughts and solutions to my little problems can come so easily when your in that state.

Posted: 13th Jan 2003
Incidently, people's love of music is one of the strongest cases for setting human consience apart from animals. In a psychological sense anyway. Every other need/desire is still based on instinct, even art appreciation - yet there is no reason for people listening to music. It doesn't satisfy any need in terms of living.

So if you look at dance as an extension of this, it can certainly be classed as soul-fulfulling (replace "soul" with whatever word you use for consience) and the spiritual side of it is as personal as an individuals music taste.

Having a rather split lifestyle; My old life and also the socialising I do with my girlfriend leads to shitty clubs playing crappy music, notably cheese. Here I dance in a very soul-less way, I still enjoy it, but less and less.
The other side of my life with more recent friends is a much more expressionate and personal affair. People seem to dance for personal pleasure, not to look good or attract members of the opposite sex as you get in towny-clubs.

I've always loved dancing, but I rarely get the out-let nowadays as I end up driving into town and so can't drink - being hugely self-conscious I need to have a few drinks in me to dance (unless I have some poi with me).

Just my thoughts...

Burner of Toast
Spinner of poi
Slacker of enormous magnitude

Posted: 13th Jan 2003
So Durbs - let me get this right - you need a few drinks inside you to dance along with everyone else or you feel self concious.. but if you got a set of poi in your hands your ok - even tho you stick out of the crowd like a sore thumb? Oh bless you hunny - You can't help being a guy - guy's are funny and always confuse me..

I honour you as an aspect of myself..

You are never to old to storm a bouncey castle..

Posted: 13th Jan 2003
I loooovvvee dancing to any electronic music cause I'll get up on an empty dancefloor, a full one, my bedroom, anywhere, close my eyes and lose myself in a world rythem and groove. Tis like there's nobody else in the world 'cept me and the music. Maybe it's like a meditation of some kind.

I live in a world of infinite possibilities.

Posted: 13th Jan 2003
To me dancing has a power somwhat similar to the written word, you can put as much or as little spirit into it as you like and people will always tell. You can dance and write something trashy, souless and empty. Welcome to the world of Video Hits and porno mags. Or you can put your soul into it and create something worthwhile, a poem, a letter, something personal.

When I dance I want to stir the darker side of my audience, I want them to feel fear, or sorrow or anger. I want them to come out enjoying something they never want to think of or never thoutght they could have thought of. I empty my soul so that they can search their own.

When I write however I can convey a larger scope of emotions. I can observe, I can create fiction, I can use the power of the written word to entrap the object of my affections, I can talk and I can joke. I have seen dancers do this with their bodies as well.

That's my two cents about dancing, it has as much or as little power as you give it.

A wise man once said to me, Hey! You! Get out of my wardrobe! and in a way, I guess he was right.

Posted: 13th Jan 2003
personally the beat wells up from within and when music apparent the physical rhealm they seem to coinside, the beat of my heart races along to the beat of the prayer... preferably at 180 bpm,...,
when you can go within music is the best form of channeling whether it be chanting or infected mushroom(thankyoukelly), feel it and see it and be one with it and all that you can comprehend is laid out in front of you, if you possess the insite or drive or will to see this and graspe it and make it your reality you can see things most can only imagine. you interact with the light of the soul, with the everpresent being that is the earth and us and you and i and we, feel the beat and see the rhealm of perseption we can all dance together nomatter where we are...

reach within to see without...
mythmitch

regret nothing, learn everything

fire_light_movement

Posted: 15th Jan 2003
Besides being pretty much the only exercise I do besides twirling and yoga, dancing is a physical, emotional and spiritual release for me. If i dont go out at least weekly and dance my arse off I feel out of whack.

I love the feeling of completely losing myself within the music - no matter what has happened to me recently or how straight I am, it is an escape and happiness on tap every time.

There is nothing quite like turning around on a crowded dancefloor and watching people all together, smiling and having a ball, all united by the beat.

Im really into my breaks, going out week in week out you get a feel for the structure of the music. Being able to pick when the beat will breakdown is one of the BEST feelings.

I'm not vegetarian, but currently I'm off my chops!