Gotta Dance

I love watching old movies in which the characters go out to nightclubs. They dress up, have a cocktail, then dance to live music. Oh man, those were the days! Of course they are always smoking a million cigarettes and guzzling so much hard liquor you wonder how they can walk and chew gum at the same time. I guess not everything about the good old days was good. One thing that was good is that people danced.

Do people still go out dancing? I am so out of the loop. I remember the disco balls, frizzy hair and heavy beat of disco music, I remember the mosh pits from the punk years. I loved square dancing in middle school every bit as much as I enjoyed twirling around during the psychedelic era to the Jefferson Airplane. The swing dance era came and went, yes? I have always wanted to have a summer solstice party during which everyone dances at some point. Dancing can be ecstatic. Dancing enhances health.

I often hear people say they're going to hear live music but I don't hear people say they're going out to dance anymore. Perhaps they do. I hope so!

Dancing is great for the brain, the body, and the spirit. Whether people dance formally, i.e. take classes, perform, etc. or just dance around the living room, this essential human activity brings joy to almost everyone. Dancing is fun. It is also great exercise and a wonderful way to connect with others.

May I suggest that sometime today you turn on the music that gets your body swaying, or at least gets your toes tapping. Stand up, begin to move with the rhythms and melodies. Let yourself go - do the twist, the cha-cha, pirouette, dance a stately waltz with your partner of choice or just with yourself - and then tell me you don't feel vivified, enlivened.

Dance and you will smile, I guarantee it.