Dance
Dance
I have never seen the movie “Footloose” but I can relate to it. Recently in the news I read that a boy going to a religious school got in trouble for attending the prom with his girlfriend at her school, apparently the boy’s school has a rule prohibiting dancing. This brings back memories for me as I grew up in a rather strict Pentecostal church which had the same rule, I remember being at my maternal grandmother’s house as a young child and hearing a song on the radio and moving to the music and Gramma telling me not to dance, as if I were doing something naughty. I knew that she and the other old ladies at the church would have freaked if they knew that I participated in squaredancing in third grade gym class. Years later I actually read the bible for myself and discovered that there is NO PLACE in God’s word anywhere that forbids dancing or indicates that it is a sin. That prohibition against dancing is part of the grand tradition practiced at times by Judaism, Christianity and Islam known as the “fence law”, a man made law intended to keep us from breaking God’s laws. Skeptics might wonder what the difference is as they think that all “prophets” pretend to represent God and make it up as they go, speaking their own word in God’s name. The difference is that if what they predict later occurs then God has really spoken through them, if not and no other evidence supports their claims then they are phonies. (The bible contains many prophecies that have been fulfilled) In Judaism God gave the Torah to Moses and among other things said that it was forbidden to boil a baby animal in it’s mother’s milk. But later rabbis created a fence law commanding the Jews to keep meat and dairy separate, something that God never ordered. In Islam Mohammed told women to cover their breasts in public but later Muslim clergy forced them to cover their whole bodies in burkas when they are outside of their homes. (I am using this as an example; I don’t endorse Islam though I do believe in their right to practice their faith) Some Christian denominations, such as Baptist and Pentecostal, continue this tradition with their prohibition against dancing. Their reasoning is that dancing can lead to sexual arousal, which then leads to lust and then sex. In my experience and my opinion: the problem with this line of thinking is that it causes Christians to cower in fear from their own sexualities, they never learn to practice self control over their own God-given passions and desires. It is true that God did create sex for marriage and I do believe that erotic dancing should be saved for one’s spouse, whether you are dancing with them or for them. However, if parents and clergy would instead teach their kids and congregations respectively to practice self-control over their desires and to admire the beauty of bodies without desiring them then they would be less likely to succumb to temptation than those who have no such psychological or emotional immunization to those temptations. God wants us to practice self-control, not cower in fear from the natural desires He built into us. Of course not all dancing causes sexual arousal, some dance moves are not sexual at all. In the book of Psalms David advised people to dance as a form of worship to God (with dance moves that are appropriate for something sacred like worship, obviously.) There are different forms of dance that are appropriate for differing occasions. I no longer attend the “First Church of the Constipated” but I’m still not much of a dancer myself as I am a bit of an inhibitionist and not very energetic. But I have no objection to other people dancing when it is appropriate. There are some forms of dance that I enjoy watching such as:
Ballet
The Bellydance
The Hula
Hardshoe forms such as Irish stepdancing and American tapdancing
Go-Go dancing (back in the 60’s when it was not as risqué as it is now, back when the children’s show “Sesame Street” actually recommended it as a career move.)
Ballroom dance
Water Ballet
Breakdancing
In the movie “Flashdance” I like the dance scenes in Mawby’s club, which were interesting, but not the ones in Zanzibar, which were degrading.
Swing dancing, which I think originated in the 40’s and had a resurgence a few years ago is interesting and the jitterbugging during the 40’s and 50’s and the twist and other dances popular during the 50’s and 60’s have a nostalgic appeal to me, though I was actually born during the late 60’s I was exposed to these dance forms in early childhood, mostly through television.
In the dictionary the term “Exotic Dance” is usually defined to include bellydancing and striptease but I am not satisfied with the way those are put together. In my own way of defining it I would classify “Exotic Dance” as things like Arabian Bellydance, Polynesian Hulas and the dances of exotic nations in Asia, Africa, the Pacific Islands and such, as the legitimate art forms of indigenous cultures. I would define striptease under the heading of “Erotic Dance”, along with lapdancing and dances done topless or nude. This next thing is my opinion, it is not my desire to shove my beliefs down the throats of others: I believe that erotic dance should only be done within marriage as God created sex for marriage and erotic dancing could be viewed as a form of foreplay. However, as erotic nightclubs already exist I don’t endorse outlawing them as the government has too much power over our lives as it is. Morality is only moral when it is voluntary.
In the eyes of most men the bellydance is just sexy entertainment but there is more to it than that: Many women view it as a feminist art, a woman’s dance of strength and power. To me it is a romantic, exotic, graceful and sensuous expression of feminine might. My interest in it actually goes back to before I had a libido, as a young child I was exposed to it as one of my paternal aunts was a bellydancer and performed it at family functions. My fascination with it was interrupted for a time when the repressed old ladies cult at our church brainwashed me into thinking that our God-given bodies were sinful and that any form of sensual beauty is wrong. In my twenties I started forming a cohesive worldview and understood that God created sex for marriage and in that context it is not sinful at all and by my late thirties had acquired the maturity to admire beauty without lusting for it. (See my entry “The Nude Human Form”) By this time I had renewed my interest in the beautiful artform I learned about from my aunt. To learn more about this “Dance of the East” you can look up the website of “Shira” and find out more about the origins of this exotic and mysterious art.