The music

Some claim that the cardboard box contains more nutritional value than the corn flakes themselves. There might be some truth in this. The corn is by peeled thereby stripping out the germ and the flour. The delights of morning cereal. We do an equivalent thing in dancing. We want purity. We stick with blandness. We strip out what is possible.

Music is everything. After all, we dance to music. Music makes us get up and dance. The right sort of music makes a phenomenal difference.

I wanted to show my dance partner what dance is all about. Music played a key role in that. The look on her face said it all. The first time - perplexment. What was that? Erhh? The second time – “What the F”. What happened next took us on the path towards magic.

It took a long time for it to sink in. She was shielded from the realms of more, by virtue of doing the same as everyone else. This belief that you can only dance to ‘Jive music’ is wrong. You can dance to absolutely anything. I showed her. Dance can be expanded simply by expanding the scope of the music. You can dance to the beat sometimes and at other times dance to the concept of the music. Variety and the spice of life et al.

Whether you are dancing to the beat or the melody you can never please everyone. There are always some that grumble about the choice of songs being played by the DJ. I learnt long ago that you can wait a long time for a song that you really like. So, I elect to dance to whatever it is, whether I like it or not. Otherwise, you spend more time sitting and less time getting any action. The best days were when we became the DJs. We could choose every song. Songs that we each liked, both liked, and songs that meant a lot to us individually. Some special tracks invigorated us both in equal measure.

I think some DJs play a lot of tracks that they like ignoring what the dancers prefer. Each venue has its ups and downs in this regard. Ultimately it is an impossible task trying to keep everyone happy. If you have requests, you may find that it makes one person keen to dance and leave the rest wanting to get a drink instead. If the music is not in accordance with your preferences, then you may have to go with it rather than rail against it. I suppose it is a bit like “when in Rome, do what the Romans do”.

Some like to be dancing frenetically all the time. Jigging, bopping, and burning the calories at a fast pace. Some see the majesty in the slow, the chilled-out dance scene. The slower tracks enable you to improvise. You can extend each move. Each move has random play intertwined. It is something to aspire to and nothing a beginner could even contemplate. It is dance that is far more alive, more flowing, and almost spiritual. You can be endlessly inventive. One can zone in and get absorbed in a way that is not possible when speeding about. Simply do the moves you know at half the normal speed. Or even one third the normal speed. Stretch them out. Bravery pays off and the result is remarkable.

You do not have to have music dictating what you do. It can inspire you though. The dancers can decide how they respond to what is playing.