Dancing... Never A More Worthless Activity
Welcome to the DK fam and dance forum!
The end of summer and Labor Day in America are fast approaching. Events such as these are usually celebrated with ceremonies, barbeques, music, and dance. Food and drink, music and dance seem to find their ways into many of our social and even business affairs. In many countries, music and dance are integral parts of the cultures, and the average persons' everyday lives. In America, however, dance, in particular, seems to not share this prime admiration. So, we thought that we would begin this weblog...ok, blog, with the question, "Why do we dance? Have you ever known a more useless activity?"
If you had a choice, would you walk across the floor, or would you waltz across the floor? Would you walk down the street, or would you twirl down the street? The answers, to me, seem fairly obvious. Why would you go about making grandiose and unnecessary gesture, when an easier, more traditional movement were possible? Dancing, just for the sake of dancing, seems strange if not absurd. Yet, when asked, many have said to me, "I just want to learn to dance". To this, I say, that my job as a good dance teacher is to find out why they are really here, and provide that... through dancing.
We have divided the benefits of dancing into 4 categories; mental, physical, social, and personal.
Some of the mental benefits are; mind/body coordination skills, creativity, learning, and memory.
Physical benefits include; strength and toning, cardiovascular exercise, increased energy, and overall improved posture and health.
Some social gains would be; increased activity, new friendships, comfortable social environments, and involvements with others in like activities.
Personally, people can gain self-confidence, become more self aware, achieve goals, be less stressed, and happier overall.
It would seem that all of these things would be desirable for most everyone. Why, then, is music and dance such an important part of everyday life in other countries, but considered to be such a frivolous activity in America? Here, it is no secret that, in many places, women have to trick, bribe, contract, or just plain drag their reluctant partners to the dance floors. Here, it is largely viewed as not a masculine activity (not that I haven't seen my fair share of the situation in reverse). Yet, guys do like music, and social activities, and girls.
So, maybe dance isn't such a useless activity after all.
In order to get the most of it that we can, we should have at least some idea of why we do it in the first place. If we went to dance with a better idea of exactly why we are there, it would be just that much more rewarding as we work toward, and when we arrived at, the goal.
Our DanceKinesis program is designed to train you to become better aware of your body; how it works, how it moves, and, how these movements relate to dance. It will help you to not only improve your dancing, but to actually think about the health of everyday movement in a totally different manner. It can also change the way that you think about abstract things like personal space, and elusive things like how others perceive you.
The program will also help you to discover the deeper meanings of your dancing experience... why you do it. It will help you to get in touch with the mental and emotional reasons that you seek dance, even if it is something as simple as just wanting to have more fun in life. DanceKinesis will help you to be a healthier and happier you.
Whether you are a competing professional or a novice social dancer, we urge you to think about our book, program, and/or exercises. DanceKinesis will change your life.
What are your thoughts? Have you ever known a more worthless activity than dance? Why do you dance? Perhaps, you have discovered a hidden benefit. We'd like to know,
