Let's Dance

While perusing Wikiquote, Brainy Quote and ThinkExist yesterday in search of possible lines to borrow for stickers, I got lost in the dance section. Sometimes the best dance lines come from historical figures not remembered so much for their dance skills:

We should consider every day lost in which we have not danced at least once. - Friedrich Nietzsche

How can you say that you've taken any trouble to live when you won't even dance? - Hermann Hesse

Now, my dancing skills are quite limited. Although I took two years of tap and ballet from ages 4 - 6 from the Marilyn Youmans School of Dance (plus baton twirling, an important finishing school skill for southern girls in the 1960s) and later in college took dance classes in order to avoid P.E. classes which involved balls and equipment, I always suspect that I appear pretty awkward on the dance floor. But - as white folks everywhere do - once I'm out there, I convince myself that I am a Soul Train dancer. And I hope that what I lack in ability, I make up in enthusiasm.

However, I have noticed that many people who comment on my dancing suggest that I must have imbibed liberally in order to display such a lack of dignity . If only this were true.

I watched an Ellen Degeneres clip on YouTube recently. When I gaze at her shaking it beneath the harsh fluorescents surrounded by an adoring all-white soccer mom audience, I am suddenly glad that I prefer darkness and crowded dance floors. But I'm sort of happy that Ellen is willing to do what she does - perhaps she becomes an inspiration for Baptist and Lutheran housewives and husbands who need a gentle nudge: if Ellen can dance badly on national television, then maybe I can too.

All I know is that when I dance, the following happens: my intellect takes a break while my body takes over, I get very happy, and I feel incredibly sexy. And, my back doesn't hurt.

NTD