Guys - How many of you can dance?

Carole · Jan 28, 2006

I am trying to teach hubby to Carolina Shag and he's got this block saying that he has no rhythm. He can play guitar, though. I know he has rhythm.

Did any of you who CAN dance (as in dancing with actual steps, and not just moving to the music), once have the idea that you couldn't? What helped you get past that?

William Haskins · Jan 28, 2006

i have danced exactly once: a traditional waltz with my wife for one song at our wedding in 1988.

Carole · Jan 28, 2006

Do you just not enjoy dancing or do you just feel that you don't "get it"? Hubby feels like he just doesn't get it.

William Haskins · Jan 28, 2006

i think it's a stupid throwback in our cultural evolution. i hate the vapid, vacant expressions of people while they dance.

i won't deny it can potentially have seductive powers, but so do a million other things.

SpookyWriter · Jan 28, 2006

The only reason a man would dance is to shag a woman. Other than that, why embarrass yourself?

StoryG27 · Jan 28, 2006

SpookyWriter said:
Other than that, why embarrass yourself?

My Hubby does so many things just to please and satisfy me...so why not dancing? So you embarrass yourself a little, eh, who cares? You also please and seduce your wife.

My Hubby won't dance in public, grrrrr, but at home, I'll be listening to music while doing dishes or some other trivial task, then he'll surprise me by taking me in his arms and dancing with me to some great song. I love when he does that. And he can move, he does have rhythm, but he swears he doesn't when we are actually faced with dancing in public.

I've accepted it now, and as long as he still surprises me with the occasional dance, I'll live with it. But I AM teaching my son to dance...IN PUBLIC. I will break this vicious cycle one way or another (or completely traumatize my poor boy...could go either way).

William Haskins · Jan 28, 2006

make sure you teach him not to make that stupid slackjawed, self-satisfied expression of a hot dog eating champion finally expelling the fruits of his labor.

Shwebb · Jan 28, 2006

My husband has great rhythm, but when we slow dance, he goes only in clockwise direction.

(He has forbidden me to fast-dance, telling me I look like Elaine Bennis.)

robeiae · Jan 28, 2006

I can dance if I want to...I can leave my friends behind...

Seriously, I can't dance worth a lick. So I don't. For this reason, and this reason alone, I feel I am entitled to ridicule and belittle all other men who choose to dance, no matter how good or bad they are at doing so.

Rob

StoryG27 · Jan 28, 2006

robeiae said:
I can dance if I want to...I can leave my friends behind...

Cause your friends don't dance
And if they don't dance
Well they're no friends of mine

or something like that...

Dahm it Rob! Now that song is going to be stuck in my mind all day.

ChunkyC · Jan 28, 2006

I like to dance (learned with my mom), though other than the waltz, I've never learned a specific one like the foxtrot or whatever. My missus used to dance with her mom and through her, I've come to quite enjoy dancing done well.

I think the Spanish forms are by far the most macho. I'd love to try to learn the paso doble, though I'm far too short and pudgy to make a good matador. I also love Riverdance, Michael Flatley at his peak in that show was extraordinary.

I actually went to the ballet once and enjoyed it, though the codpiece worn by the male principal dancer was rather intimidating.

RubyRoo · Jan 28, 2006

ChunkyC said:
I actually went to the ballet once and enjoyed it, though the codpiece worn by the male principal dancer was rather intimidating.

Dear me anyone would think ballet was full of girls prancing about in tutus...honestly.

I do A LOT of dancing...but I'm not a man.

I do modern, jazz, hip-hop, street, performance and stretch lowest grade is grade 6 or intermediate foundation. However I know next to nothing about couples dancing in ballroom and latin!...

Helpful arent I?!

BradyH1861 · Jan 28, 2006

I have been known to get jiggy with it from time to time.

Of course, dancing is a vertical expression of horizontal desires according to my sainted mother.

(grasshopper) · Jan 28, 2006

I don't suppose this counts, but I can do a mean do-si-do!

Got hooked on square dancing a long time ago.

SC Harrison · Jan 28, 2006

If I were Mister Bojangles I would have starved to death years ago. If some drunken Comanchero was shooting his .45 at my feet, maybe I could get something going that had some artistic quality to it.

Slowdancing is another story. No it isn't. I suck at that too, but it's a good way to make it halfway to first base, so I'm game.

Maryn · Jan 28, 2006

I stole Mr. Maryn away from some poor woman who deserves a husband who will dance with her. Meanwhile, he has a wife who won't dance except under Steve Harrison's drunken Comanchero scenario. Not even at our wedding.

I agree, Carole, if he can play guitar then he's got rhythm. I bet he thinks he looks foolish dancing and is therefore hyper-self-conscious about it, even home alone with you. Competence at home can only lead to public dancing. If he balks here and now, he won't ever have to dance in public.

Depending on how self-conscious he is, it may be that frequent practice and praise will break his self-imposed block--but that never worked on me.

Maryn, non-dancer

Shadow_Ferret · Jan 28, 2006

I have rhythm. I play guitar. Fumble on the drums. When I listen to music I tap my fingers or nod my head to the rhythm of the music.

But dance? Why? What's the point? If I'm in any situation where there is dancing, there is also drinking and good conversation. Dancing takes you away from both of those activities.

Carole · Jan 29, 2006

ok ok...I do need to say that hubby has always told me that he would love to know how to dance. That's the "why" in all of this. Plus, I don't want to have to dance with my mom, my MIL or (GASP) my BROTHER every time there is an occasion.

William, I haven't seen the vacant expressions on dancers except with waltzing, and I don't think I'd enjoy that anyway. Too slow. The Shag and basic swing dancing are faster paced.

Shwebb, He says that HE will end up looking like Elaine! (It kinda spooked me when he gave a demonstration of that and made me a believer!)

Chunky, You're my hero! Did your mom have to get you past thinking you couldn't? If so, how did she do that?

Brady, You're my hero too! You sound like you really like to dance. Have you always felt like it would come natural or did you have to get over some hangups first?

Grasshopper, squaredancing counts

Shadow Ferret, Hubby doesn't drink. He has no desire to drink and doesn't think he is missing out on anything by not drinking. He's also not a big conversationalist in a large group.

So, anyway...

Carolina Shag is really easy. I picked it up in about 5 minutes. But maybe I am just not a teacher. Maybe I should leave teaching him to dance to a professional? Ex-jerk and I used to go two-stepping. It was a lot of fun - for me. We went with another couple who was teaching us. I had a blast. I picked it up in our living room before we went out that first night. I danced with the other guy and ex-jerk danced with the other guy's wife. 2 months later, I was dancing like I had been all my life and ex-jerk was still COUNTING (It's the 2-STEP for cripes sake!) and stomping all over Patricia's little feet.

There seem to be a lot more women who dance than men. Surely women don't have a better sense of rhythm, timing and ability to move than men in general! I have to think that there's something else afoot. (Really bad pun intended!)

Carole · Jan 29, 2006

storygirl said:
My Hubby won't dance in public, grrrrr, but at home, I'll be listening to music while doing dishes or some other trivial task, then he'll surprise me by taking me in his arms and dancing with me to some great song.

Thankfully, hubby will do that on occasion, too.

Shwebb · Jan 29, 2006

Carole,

I have a good friend who plays the DRUMS and he can't dance.

It seems like his problem is he hears too many rhythms, and his body doesn't know how to respond.

I also heard that the drummer for Van Halen has the same problem.

Carole · Jan 29, 2006

I think guys are just a-skeered of looking silly

I do think I know what you are saying, though. I play drums a little. I can hear many ways to go with the music. There's only one timing for any given song (or part of a song), though. It will be only so many beats per measure. It can't have two sets of timing going on at the same time. Well..I guess it can, but that doesn't seem to be an "on purpose" thing.

AdamH · Jan 29, 2006

I can't dance worth a lick. I find whenever I hear the rhythm of the music my body doesn't react fast enough to it resulting in me being always behind the beat. But this only seems to happen in public. When I'm at home with my wife, I do surprise her with a waltz or slow dance in the kitchen or wherever once and awhile. And I'm always on pace. Maybe it's a self concsious thing of other people watching.

SC Harrison · Jan 29, 2006

I really don't think my body was designed for dancing. I mean, I can flail my arms around pretty well, and I can make my head do some weird stuff, but as far as my butt is concerned, I just don't have much range. I see some people (even whites) that can throw their butt around three to four feet, and bring it right back quickly. Mine goes about three inches and then stops abruptly, and the recovery speed is very slow. I guess I could use my legs to help it out, but I need those to keep me from falling over. It's a problem, but not one that I feel compelled to overcome.

StoryG27 · Jan 29, 2006

SC Harrison said:
I see some people (even whites) that can throw their butt around three to four feet, and bring it right back quickly. Mine goes about three inches and then stops abruptly, and the recovery speed is very slow.

poetinahat · Jan 29, 2006

Carole said:
ex-jerk was still COUNTING (It's the 2-STEP for cripes sake!)

Dear, oh, dear. Laughing. Weeping. Can't breathe.

I think the 'a-skeered' comment is right, in a sense. Regarding the idea of not looking manly enough, and I quote from the Book of Rick James ("Pass the Joint"):

"They call me a fa99ot. Me and all my women laugh at that..."

I love to dance, but not if I hate the song. I'd sooner eat tripe with a trowel than dance to "Come On Eileen" or anything by Steve Miller Band (many more examples).

And why, for goodness' sake, would a man turn down the chance to hold a woman in his arms for a few minutes? Then again, maybe my hat's too tight.

Guys - How many of you can dance?

How 'bout some ether?

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