- The way I see it: "I would believe only in a God who could dance", F. Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra.
In almost all cultures and throughout history (except oddly enough perhaps now) humans have been gathering in large groups, accompanied by a wider range of rhythms and sounds to move their bodies, losing themselves in the bewilderment of a dance. Reasons why dancing together is considered among the most essential and salutary practice that highly contribute to our well being, social cohesion and healthy mental state.
But dancing is paradoxically an activity that many of us, concretely those who might most need to do it, are powerfully inclined to resist and deep down to fear.
Because we feel like an idiot. We feel ashamed of how we move, so we don't. Or we move as we think we should, in order to be accepted and not being pointed out.
But in fact, this idiocy feeling is a basic feature of our nature that unites us immediately with everyone, no matter what or where we belong.
Dancing in community has nothing to do with knowing how to dance or doing it "well." On the contrary.When dancing together, we remember what it is to belong, to be part of something larger than ourselves, to be indifferent to our own egos.
Communal dance has been historically valued for "allowing us to transcend our individuality and for inducing us to merge into a larger, more welcoming and more redemptive whole."So next time you feel like an idiot when trying out your moves, remember that dancing with other fellows provides us with a primordial occasion on which this basic idiocy can be publicly displayed and communally celebrated.
Dance like an idiot and celebrate it. We all are, and we should be. That's the whole point.
The School of Life states it much better than I do here. - Compilation:
- Source:
- The School of Life, ,